Citrix Brings Server Access to Pocket PC OS

By Bernard Cole
iApplianceWeb
(03/27/02, 12:59:23 AM EDT)

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. --- Citrix Systems, Inc., which has been providing thin client access over the Internet long before Java became popular, has moved to position itself in the middle of the new net-centric iAppliance market with a new version of its MetaFrame software. The new version supports and enhances Pocket PC 2002, the most recent version of Microsoft's operating system for Pocket PC handheld computing devices.

Building on Citrix's pioneering Independent Computing Architecture, previously known as the Intelligent Console Architecture, MetaFrame incorporates many Web service protocols such as WAP, XML, SOAP and Java, needed to provide remote wired and wireless access to servers using Windows, Unix or Linux, but using a fraction of the normal bandwidth requirement. Via the company's ICA protocols, screen updates, keystrokes and mouse clicks are transported between client and server over the network. Users see and work with the application's interface, but 100 percent of the application executes on the server. Additional capabilities like panning and scaling and SpeedScreen provide an enhanced user experience.

ICA is the physical line protocol for communications between a thin iAppliance client and the Citrix MetaFrame application software resident on a server. It is not a physical protocol as much as it is a logical data stream that flows encapsulated in an ICA packet which is designed to guarantee the delivery of the data stream with no errors and no missing or out of order data.

Citrix customers can download the Citrix ICA client for all versions of the Pocket PC operating system at http://www.citrix.com/download/win-downloads.asp.