Chennai startup to build $100 thin client

Novatium Solutions, a Chennai-based startup is building a $100 (Rs 4,400) computer using thin client architecture, which it hopes will take "computing to the next billion".

That motto which the company has given itself, is backed among others by Ashok Jhunjhunwala. The IIT Madras don, who took wireless telephony to the villages, is on the board of directors of Novatium, started by his former student, Shishir B Purohit.

They feel this is a shot at making computers affordable: The "Novatium thin client" can do most routine office work such as e-mail, word processing, spread sheets, presentations, and browsing the Internet. If this thin client succeeds, Novatium will also become a successful business.

Thin clients are essentially computers that don't have their own hard disks. They connect as "terminals" to a server, whose memory and software they borrow. The result, they have little that a virus can attack, and most changes need to be made only at the server.

"Thin Client solutions are particularly relevant where uniform systems are required for large groups of people and minimal support is available to run the systems", Jhunjhunwala told Business Standard.

Typical examples are schools, colleges, hospitals, community centres and businesses. With the advent of broadband networks in the developing countries, these devices will soon "reach our homes to be an integral part of our lives", the professor said.

Novatium's Thin client platform can be used in any "computing environment" with a local area network and a terminal server. So, government and e-governance projects and large enterprises are potential customers.

Globally thin client original equipment makers use Intel's X86 platforms "across various processor categories".

The Novatium thin client platform uses a "radically different Micro Signal Architecture", that integrates much of the thin client's work on a single chip. It works fast enough and has enough hardware (three ports) to efficiently handle "wire speed" tasks to bring broadband to its users, he said.

This computer can use both "open source" and Windows based software applications. It can also handle "browser based server-centric applications", such as an enterprise resource planning or a customer resource management package.

"We will be working with our original equipment makers and system integrators to add more functionality, for specific businesses", Jhunjhunwala said.