Sun Ray

For other uses, see Sun Ray (disambiguation).
Sun Ray

Sun Ray 1G thin client
Manufacturer Oracle Corporation
Type Thin-client
Release date September 1999 (1999-09)
Retail availability 1999–2014
Units sold 500K+
Media Smartcard
CPU MicroSparc IIep
Memory 8 MiB EDO DRAM
Input USB
Connectivity Ethernet
Power 110 V – 240 V 50/60 Hz
Predecessor NeWT
Successor Sun Ray 2
Related articles Appliance Link Protocol

The Sun Ray from Oracle is a stateless thin client solution aimed at corporate environments, originally introduced by Sun Microsystems in September 1999 and discontinued by Oracle in 2014.[1] It featured a smart card reader and several models featured an integrated flat panel display.

The idea of a stateless desktop was a significant shift from, and the eventual successor to, Sun's earlier line of diskless Java-only desktops, the JavaStation.[2]

Predecessor

The concept began in Sun Microsystems Laboratories in 1997 as a project codenamed NetWorkTerminal (NeWT). The client was designed to be small, low cost, low power, and silent. It was based on the Sun Microelectronics MicroSparc IIep. Other processors initially considered for it included Intel's StrongARM, Philips Semiconductors TriMedia, National Semiconductors Geode. The MicroSparc IIep was selected because of its high level of integration, good performance, low cost, and general availability.

NeWT included 8 MB of EDO DRAM and 4 MB of NOR flash. The graphics controller used was the ATI Rage 128 because of its low power, 2D rendering performance, and low cost. It also included an ATI video encoder for TV-out (removed in the Sun Ray 1), a Philips Semiconductor SAA7114 video decoder/scaler, Crystal Semiconductor audio CODEC, Sun Microelectronics Ethernet controller, PCI USB host interface with 4 port hub, and I²C smart card interface. The motherboard and daughtercard were housed in an off-the-shelf commercial small form-factor PC case with internal +12/+5VDC auto ranging power supply.

NeWT was designed to have as much feature parity with a modern business PC in every way possible. The client didn't use a commercial operating system. Instead it used a real-time exec which was originally developed in Sun Labs as part of an Ethernet-based security camera project codenamed NetCam. Less than 60 NeWT's were ever built and very few survived. However one is in the collection of the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.[3]

In July 2013, reports circulated that Oracle was ending the development of the Sun Ray and related products.[4] Scott McNealy (long-time CEO of Sun) tweeted about this.[5] An official announcement was made August 1, 2013, with a last order in February 2014.[1] Support and hardware maintenance are available until 2017.[6]

Design

In contrast to a thick client, the Sun Ray is only a networked display device, with applications running on a server elsewhere, and the state of the user's session being independent of the display. This enables another feature of the Sun Ray, portable sessions: a user can go from one Sun Ray to another and continue their work without closing any programs. With a smart card, all the user has to do is insert the card and they will be presented with their session. Reauthentication requirement depends on the mode of operation. Without the smart card, the procedure is almost identical, except the user must specify their username as well as password to get their session. In either case, if a session does not yet exist, a new one will be created the first time they connect.

Sun Ray clients are connected via an Ethernet network to a Sun Ray Server. Sun Ray Software (SRS) is available for the Solaris and Linux operating systems. Sun developed a separate network display protocol, Appliance Link Protocol (ALP), for the Sun Ray system. VMware announced support for the protocol by VMware View in 2008.[7]

The Sun Ray Software has two basic modes of operation — Generic Session or Kiosk Mode. In a generic session, the user will see the Solaris or GNU/Linux login screen of the operating system that is running SRS. In Kiosk mode, the log in screen varies depending on the session type in use. Kiosk mode can be used for a number of different desktop or applications. Oracle has integrated a RDP client, VMware View client into the Sun Ray software that can be used in Kiosk mode to start a full screen Windows session. In this mode, no window manager or Unix desktop is started. The Windows environment can be any OS that supports RDP.

In 2007, Sun and UK company Thruput integrated the Sun Ray 2FS with 28" (2048 × 2048), 30" (2560 × 1600) and 56" (3840 × 2160) displays; in 2008 they trialled an external graphics accelerator that enables the Sun Ray to be used with any high resolution display.

Models

The Sun Ray 150

The Sun Ray 3 models were the last in production - last order date February 28, 2014; last ship date August 31, 2014.

Sun's OEM partners produced Wi-Fi notebook versions of Sun Ray:

Hardware

The Sun Ray 1 clients used a 100Mhz MicroSparc IIep processor initially followed by a custom SOC version codenamed Copernicus (US 6993,617 B2)[10] which was based on the MicroSparc IIep core, but added 4MB of on-chip DRAM, USB, and smart card interface in addition to the memory controller and PCI interface already on the Microsparc IIep.

The Sun Ray 2 and 3 clients use the MIPS architecture-based RMI Alchemy Au1550 processor.[11]

A pure software implementation was available in Sun Ray Software 5 (SRS5).

Sun Rays and Windows

In commercial environments, Sun Rays are most commonly deployed as a thin client to access a Microsoft Windows desktop using the SRSS built-in RDP client uttsc. The desktop can be a Terminal Server session or a Virtual Machine (VDI). This setup is flexible and works well in many environments because the intermediate Sun Ray Server layer is transparent to the Windows desktop. At the same time however, this transparency can also become an issue for software that is location dependent. If location dependent information needs to be added it is possible to extend the functionality of the Sun Ray software with additional custom scripts. The Sun Ray Wiki offers a "Follow Me Printing"[12] setup as an example, e.g. a user always gets the nearest printer as default printer when going from room-to-room or location-to-location, also inside their Windows session. It is relatively easy for an administrator to extend and add to this functionality as required.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Hawley, Adam (August 1, 2013). "Sun Ray Hardware Last Order Dates & Extension of Premier Support for Desktop Virtualization Software". Oracle. Retrieved October 13, 2013.
  2. ↑ Shah, Rawn (November 2, 1999). "Here comes the Sun Ray". SunWorld. IDG. Retrieved 2008-08-18.
  3. 1 2 "Sun Ray I prototype". Catalog entry102662880. Computer History Museum. Retrieved October 13, 2013.
  4. ↑ Vaughan-Nichols, Steven J (July 15, 2013). "Oracle to halt development of Sun virtualization technologies". ZDNet. Retrieved October 13, 2013.
  5. ↑ McNealy, Scott (July 16, 2013). "SunRay was one of my favorite Sun products. Bummer. Oracle to halt development of Sun virtualization technologies.". Tweet. Retrieved October 13, 2013.
  6. ↑ "Oracle Sun Ray Hardware Last Order Dates and Extension of Premier Support for Desktop Virtualization Software Document" (PDF). Oracle. Retrieved April 26, 2014.
  7. ↑ "VMware Delivers High-Performance Virtual Desktop Solution for Remote Users with Sun Microsystems' Sun Ray Software and Virtual Display Clients". Press release. VMware. May 19, 2008. Retrieved October 13, 2013.
  8. ↑ Arima, TW.
  9. ↑ Tadpole.
  10. ↑ Patents, Google.
  11. ↑ "Sun Ray 2 Virtual Display Client Specifications". Old Sun web page. Sun. Archived from the original on April 21, 2006. Retrieved October 13, 2013.
  12. ↑ SRSS addon: Follow me printing (wiki), Sun Rays.
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