Dell Ships First Entry-Level Thin Client with Quad-Core Intel Processor

Dell, the client computing division of Dell Technologies, has introduced an entry-level thin client device equipped with a quad-core Intel processor.

Available globally today for $329 and up, the new Wyse 3040 delivers 30 percent better performance than comparable prior-generation products, according to Jeff McNaught, vice president of cloud client computing at Round Rock, Texas-based Dell.

“This is really an entry-level product with an entry-level price that historically would be positioned at the midrange for most of our competitors,” he says.

Entry-level systems typically lack the processing horsepower to run anything more demanding than basic productivity software and line-of-business applications.

“You cannot do Skype for Business on most traditional thin clients,” McNaught says.

By contrast, he continues, the Wyse 3040’s Intel Atom X5 1.44GHz quad-core CPU, which supports up to 2GB of DDR3 RAM and 8GB of flash, can not only handle videoconferencing solutions but stream full 1080p video to multiple displays at once.

Moreover, Dell contends that the new product’s added compute power will enable it to keep pace with higher performance demands from increasingly sophisticated and IO-intensive applications in the future, extending its lifespan and ROI.

“People want a device that will let them jump over 1 or 2 replacement cycles,” McNaught says.

Target markets for the Wyse 3040 include customers in the healthcare, education, government, finance, retail, and manufacturing industries who need durable client hardware with robust specs.

Weighing as little as half a pound, the new device comes with two DisplayPort interfaces, wired and wireless 802.11ac networking, and four USB ports, including one that supports the high-speed USB 3.1 Gen 1 standard. It’s compatible with Citrix XenDesktop, Microsoft Remote Desktop Services, and VMware Horizon, and supports the Citrix HDX, Microsoft RDP, and PCoIP protocols. Support for the VMware Blast Extreme remote protocol will become available in June.

Though all of the models shipped today utilize Wyse’s ThinOS operating system, additional Wyse 3040 SKUs that run on ThinLinux, a thin client-optimized platform based on SUSE Linux, will arrive in June as well. Those units will include a built-in Firefox browser and allow users to run Linux-based applications directly from local memory and storage, easing pressure on broadband connections and backend infrastructures.

The Wyse 3040 is the latest addition to a thin client product portfolio Dell has updated extensively in the past year. The company introduced the first mobile thin clients in its Latitude computing portfolio last September, for example, and a new midrange desktop thin client equipped with an AMD 2.4GHz quad-core processor in November.

“Over the last 12 months, we have really rebuilt our entire product line,” McNaught says.

Together with Dell server, storage, and networking systems, he continues, those products make deploying virtual desktop infrastructure solutions more affordable for businesses intimidated by VDI’s cost and complexity.

We’ve cut a lot of the time and the cost of the design out of the equation,” McNaught says. “You can bring up a whole virtual desktop environment from 100 to 1,000 people in about 2 hours.”

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