5 Thin Clients, One Mouse and Keyboard

First, a little background

All ACP Enabled Thin Clients receive the same core software at boot up. This ensures that no matter what model of hardware has been selected all units have the exact same version. To handle special hardware options, ACP's management and enabling software, ThinManager, lets the administrator identify specific Thin Clients that will receive additional software modules. Some of these modules are automatically selected based on the type of Thin Client hardware that ThinManager detects, but some are optional and designed to enhance the basic functionality of the device. The latter includes such modules as the high-speed serial driver, instant failover, and X-Term emulation.

This newest module allows one ACP Enabled Thin Client with a keyboard and mouse (the master) to control up to four additional ACP Enabled Thin Clients (the slaves). Slave clients are configured to be to the right, left, top or bottom of the master. To gain control of a slave client, the master simply moves his mouse off the corresponding edge of the screen and onto the slave's screen. The keyboard input destination matches the current mouse location.

ACP's new keyboard/mouse sharing module allows one keyboard/mouse to operate multiple Thin Clients

While it is technically possible to have five Thin Clients chained together in this fashion, we anticipate that the most common uses for this new module will be in locations that have two or three Thin Clients mounted in a single display panel and are currently using multiple keyboards and mice. Operators can now simply slide the mouse off the screen of the master client and it will instantly jump to the screen of one of the slaves.

The application software remains unchanged, and the programs being displayed on each of the Thin Clients are still running in separate sessions on the server. This is not a method of attaching two displays to a single Thin Client; rather it is a way to share a single keyboard and mouse among multiple existing clients. If the slave clients have their own mouse and keyboard, they cannot move their focus onto the master, and when the master is not controlling the slave's cursor the slave Thin Client operates normally.

Please contact your local ACP Distributor for more information on this new feature.

For more information on ACP Industrial Thin Client computers, please visit our web site at http://www.thinmanager.com

To sign up for the E-mail newsletter go here: ACP newsletter signup

For an archive of past newsletter articles go to: ACP Newsletter Archive

Top