Check this out!! http://www.matrox.com/mga/corp/epica/home.cfm A hardware and software suite dedicated to bringing multi-display to thin clients. Montreal, Canada, March 8, 2006 â Matrox Graphics, the leading manufacturer of graphics solutions for professionals, announces Matrox EpicA. EpicA features a host of innovative and practical multi-display benefits set to increase productivity for financial, insurance and enterprise professionals in thin computing environments. There is increasingly widespread implementation of thin computing architecture to efficiently manage technology costs, increase security and centralize data storage. Matrox will address the need for more screen real estate in this infrastructure with EpicA, a complete hardware and software multi-display solution. "Matrox is pleased to bring its focused multi-display leadership and expertise to another specific environment where financial, insurance and enterprise professionals can benefit from this technology," says Mohamed Jivraj, Product Manager, Matrox Graphics. "Offering the EpicA software in combination with the EpicA series of graphics cards provides the total productivity-enhancing solution." Matrox EpicA hardware will address thin client multi-display needs with fanless, dual and quad PCI, low-profile, and low-power consuming products. In addition, the traditional core-benefits of Matrox products including long product life cycles, reliability and stability, flexibility and industry-leading 2D image quality lend themselves perfectly to this technology. Matrox EpicA software will reside on the server and will be compatible with leading remote connection technologies. This revolutionary software will bring desktop management and multi-monitor awareness to thin computing environments. Monitor-awareness allows a large resolution on the client to be divided as the user desires. Availability Matrox EpicA will be available in Q2 2006. For more information, or to obtain The Matrox Multi-Display Thin Computing White Paper, please register at http://www.matrox.com/mga/corp/epica/registration/emailfinent_epica_form.cfm.
I have one question that I am unclear about. Does the server have to have a multi head display, or only the thin client? Also, can I use the software with my old Matrox multihead cards, or do I need to specifically get the new Matrox EpicA cards? nitro
The server does not need to have a multi-display card; any card (single or multi) in the server will do. The Matrox EpicA cards are designed for thin client devices to enable multi-display computing. EpicA software has been designed exclusively for the EpicA series of graphics cards, so it does not work with other Matrox cards.
MMD, When is Matrox going to do something about the state of Linux drivers for it's multihead cards ? eg 64 bit, X11 R7.0 and plently of other issues. You should take the opportunity to read your own support forum.
Imagine a thin client connected to 4 monitors (i.e. the Matrox EpicA graphics card is installed in the thin client). The thin client is then used to connect remotely to a Windows server machine via rDesktop or Citrix ICA. Through the remote connection, the user then opens up MS Word or any other application. Since the applications are actually running on the server, there is a need for a windows management utility on the server to provide a better user experience otherwise applications will be maximized across all screens (imagine using Word across 4 monitors), dialog boxes will pop-up everywhere as opposed to a single pre-determined display, etc. EpicA software gives the user the ability to control how information/applications are managed and displayed.
We have a dedicated linux team working on enhancing our drivers(e.g. bug fixes) and expanding their functionality to encompass new OS requirements such as 64-bit computing.