This guide presents information for engineers who build or plan to build personal computers and expansion cards under the Network PC Design Initiative.
The Network PC is a new addition to the PC family— not a replacement — using Intel architecture and other microprocessor architectures that run the Microsoft® Windows® or Windows NT® Workstation operating systems. The Net PC will reduce the cost of business computing by optimizing the design for users who do not require the flexibility and expandability of the traditional PC, and by allowing organizations to centrally manage their information technology. Although the types of business users will vary, the Net PC will be ideally suited for those involved in activities such as data entry, transaction processing, and intranet and Internet access.
Following these design guidelines for the Net PC will allow PC manufacturers to deliver products with a baseline level of manageability and interoperability, and will offer greater certainty to information technology (IT) managers that specific steps have been taken to reduce total cost of ownership (TCO).
The Net PC supports either Windows 95 or Windows NT Workstation; however, more significant TCO reductions will be realized with Windows NT Workstation 4.0 and later versions. An important benefit of the Net PC design is its assurance of a seamless migration path to the rich system-manageability capabilities that are part of Windows NT Workstation 5.0.
The Net PC is designed to be a highly manageable platform, with instrumentation, network boot capabilities, controlled and managed upgrade capabilities, and a “sealed case” that prevents end-user access for changing the system hardware or software configuration. However, the Net PC preserves the corporate investment in existing Windows-based and Windows-compatible in-house application software while extending the computing platform to support Internet and intranet software based on Java and Microsoft ActiveX™ solutions.
The Net PC defined in these guidelines provides a complete hardware, software, and operating system solution to address the PC manageability issues in corporate environments, where the benefits of PC-based computing can be preserved and enhanced through greater centralized control.