Companies that run Windows software in more than just a few locations can usually benefit from swapping their current PCs for Thin Clients. ACP designed a Thin Client solution that is able to directly replace most of the PCs running today, with little or no change noticed by the operator. How we did that is one thing, but what we want to present here are some of the reasons that making a switch to Thin Clients can benefit your company directly.
To make the presentation as straightforward as possible we have summarized our arguments into a single table. Without a great deal of discussion, we have simply listed some of the features users desire in the platform hosting their user interface and showed how Thin Clients provide a better alternative. While you might be able to argue that we picked features that make the Thin Client come out as the clear winner (no surprise there) you cannot argue that the features we selected are not important, especially for the industrial customer.
Feature |
ACP Thin Client |
PC |
|
Yes |
Yes |
|
Yes |
Yes |
|
Yes |
Yes |
|
Yes |
Yes |
|
Yes |
Possible |
|
Yes |
Possible |
|
Yes |
Possible |
|
Yes |
Possible |
|
Yes |
No |
|
Yes |
No |
|
Yes |
No |
|
Yes |
No |
|
Yes |
No |
|
Yes |
No |
While the benefits of using a Thin Client platform to distribute software are important, many of those benefits are inherent in the Thin Client architecture and are the very reasons that we started working on Thin Client technology 4 years ago. What is perhaps more interesting is what we have done since as we specialized our Thin Clients for the industrial market.
This second table therefore goes a little further, highlighting some of the important features that we have added to make the Thin Client more at home with other pieces of industrial equipment.
Feature |
ACP Thin Client |
Other Thin Clients |
|
Yes |
No |
|
Yes |
No |
|
Yes |
No |
|
Yes |
No |
|
Yes |
No |
Below is an explanation of these features.
Our clients are constantly checking in with the server - at the first sign of server trouble, they drop that server (the primary) and move to the next one listed in their configuration. But it doesn't stop there. While the client is running on one of the backup servers, it is constantly checking with the primary server. If you have configured the client to have an "Enforced Primary" server, then once the original server is back online, the client will switch itself back. If you already have a session for the client running on the other server, then the switch takes about 6 seconds.
This feature is also used for server updates. The Primary server is taken offline and all of the clients running on it switch to their backup. The Primary server is then updated, and when it is brought back online its clients come back. We also see systems configured where the clients don't all fail to the same server. For instance, a server hosting 20 clients may have 10 go to one backup and 10 to go another, keeping the load down on the backup servers.
To function as a drop-in replacement for an industrial PC, our clients need to be able to handle the same I/O that can be handled by a full PC, and that includes Profibus and DeviceNet. It also includes support for high-speed serial devices which, while often found in a factory, are not ever supported by non-ACP Enabled Thin Clients. Other Thin Clients may have a serial port, but they are designed for light, intermediate use - not the kind of reliable throughput needed to grab serial data from a PLC.
All ACP Enabled Thin Clients also come with support for all of the major Touchscreen models. Not only do we support them, our management software also allows an administrator to send a calibration command to the Touchscreen at any time that simply overlays a 'touch target' on the screen. Touch the target twice and the calibration display goes away and the screen is calibrated. The application never stops running on the server. A company having trouble with Touchscreens going out of calibration could send down a calibrate command to all of the clients daily, and when the operator sees the calibration display he can perform the procedure.
Operators on the floor need to have the full interface to their Windows based control and monitoring systems, but without the support difficulties associated with a PC. Thin Clients allow this, but ACP has taken Thin Client ease of use a step further by providing for automatic configuration and replacement. Once a default client has been configured through ThinManager, ACP Enabled clients are added simply by turning them on. Each new client gets the default configuration, along with a unique username. Clients can be set to auto-login (so the user never even sees the login screen) and even start a specific application (like Wonderware's TSE software) instead of the desktop.
We made replacement just as easy. If a client is swapped with a new client, ThinManager recognizes the new client and asks if this should be a new user or connect to the session from the previous client. The great thing about this is that it happens at the client, without any need for intervention from the server. This means that an operator can swap a client in the middle of the night when resources in the IT department may be difficult to find.
There are now nine different hardware vendors who are providing combined about 40 models of Thin Client enabled with ACP Technology. And when you add in our office grade Thin Clients, and the clients that can be created using our new Thin Adapter, you have quite a selection of clients from which to choose. Each of these clients has the exact same properties and abilities - they only differ in the specifics of the client hardware. Once you get a Thin Client system up and going, any of these clients can be plugged in and turned on and will boot as a fully functional ACP Enabled Thin Client, with its configuration controlled and monitored by ACP's ThinManager.
There are many office grade Thin Clients that are now almost useless because they were based on Windows CE 2.0. There are sometimes mechanisms to upgrade these devices, but the process is usually cumbersome. With all ACP Enabled clients, the client's operating system is kept on the server, and loaded (in about 4 seconds over 10MB Ethernet) at boot-up. Update the software on the server, and all clients get the new version the next time that they start up so they never become obsolete or have to be reprogrammed.
And for slower connections (dial-up or wireless modem) that use ACP Enabled clients with a disk-on-chip device, each time that the client boots it checks to see if there is a newer version of its firmware available. If the answer is 'yes', the user is given the option of loading the latest version into the client's memory by answering a simple question.
ACP is not only the company to turn to for industrial Thin Client solutions; we are also the leading company in the world when it comes to Thin Client management and control software. Visit our homepage and take a look at what ACP has to offer. You'll be glad you did.
For more information on ACP Industrial Thin Client computers, please visit our web site at http://www.thinmanager.com
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