IGEL Technology, Germany's leading manufacturer of thin clients, has added the latest protocols, software clients and protocol extensions for accessing centralized IT and cloud infrastructures to its full range of Universal Desktop thin clients. Effective immediately, all three operating systems available from IGEL (IGEL Linux, Microsoft Windows Embedded Standard 7 and Microsoft Windows Embedded Standard 2009) now have the latest version of Citrix ICA Receiver and the newest VMware View Client. The Microsoft RemoteFX client for IGEL Linux now also supports USB redirection. With this enhancement, IGEL has once again increased the multimedia performance of its devices.
All IGEL Universal Desktop thin clients now have the latest protocol versions for accessing virtualized applications and desktops running in Citrix XenApp and Citrix XenDesktop: ICA 12 for Linux and ICA 13 for Windows Embedded Standard 7 and Windows Embedded Standard 2009. Among other things, this means that IGEL customers now have a new decoder available for rendering HDX 3D Pro graphics. This improvement allows rich, high-fidelity professional-grade 3D graphics to be streamed and delivered from a central workstation, even over low-bandwidth networks. Beyond this, the latest ICA protocol versions also offer enhanced support of multiview setups, streaming of Flash content (HDX MediaStream Flash Redirection), optimized video transmission from webcams (HDX RealTime Webcam Video Compression) as well as support for a new audio subsystem (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA) Subsystem Support). The specific improvements in ICA 13 (Windows only) include support for Microsoft RemoteFX and Windows Aero.
Client-side Caching: VMware View 5 Client for Windows
From the end of 2011, all Windows-based IGEL models have had the software client for VMware View 5, which also allows 3D effects and Windows Aero visual effects to be delivered over a WAN. The efficiency and performance for playing multimedia content has been improved by support for client-side caching, which allows graphics data to be locally cached on a thin client. In addition, VMware has announced that a Linux client for VMware View 5 will be available in the second quarter of 2012. Shortly after this client version becomes available, IGEL will also integrate it into its Linux firmware.
Microsoft RemoteFX for IGEL Linux: USB and Multimedia Redirection
In addition to multimedia redirection, IGEL's Linux-based solutions now offer USB redirection, which permits functionalities such as synchronization of smartphones or operation of audio devices, headsets and smartcard readers locally at a thin client. Furthermore, IGEL has announced plans to provide support for isochronous USB devices such as webcams or document scanners in a later release of its device firmware.
IGEL Universal Desktop thin clients with Windows Embedded Standard 7 have a native client for Microsoft RemoteFX, whereas Windows Embedded Standard 2009 does not support RemoteFX.
"Our latest firmware updates allow even better utilization of the hardware capabilities available in our thin clients," explains Florian Spatz, Product Marketing Manager at IGEL. "We're very pleased to be able to offer our customers an even better user experience and greater efficiency with thin client computing."