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The Sun Ray is a stateless thin-client solution aimed at corporate environments, introduced by Sun Microsystems in September 1999. It features a smartcard reader and is often integrated into a 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.^[1]

Design

In contrast to a thick client, the Sun Ray is a 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 notable 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 smartcard, all the user has to do is slip in the card, enter their password when prompted, and they will be presented with their session. Without the smartcard, 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 the Sun Ray Server. Sun Ray Server Software (SRSS) is available for the Solaris Operating System and Linux. Rather than using the X Display protocol, Sun developed a separate secure bitmap-based network protocol, Appliance Link Protocol (ALP), for the Sun Ray system (similar in concept to VNC's Remote FrameBuffer protocol).

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

Models

As of January 2007, three models are in production:

Sun Ray 2 - small footprint, low power (4 watts)
Sun Ray 2FS - support for dual heads, 100BaseFX
Sun Ray 270 - integrated into a 17" LCD, mountable

Older systems that are no longer shipping:

NeWT (AKA NetWork Terminal) - Original Sun Labs prototype, no display
Sun Ray 1 - supports displays up to 1280×1024 at 85Hz
Sun Ray 100 - integrated into a 17" CRT monitor
Sun Ray 150 - integrated into a 15" LCD monitor
Sun Ray 1g - supports displays up to 1920x1200 at 75 Hz
Sun Ray 170 - integrated into a 17" LCD monitor

Sun's OEM partners have also produced wi-fi notebook versions of Sun Ray:

Comet 12 - Sun Ray 12" notebook produced by General Dynamics
Comet 15 - Sun Ray 15" notebook produced by General Dynamics
Jasper 320 - Sun Ray 2 notebook produced by Naturetech
Amber 808 - Sun Ray 2 tablet produced by Naturetech
Opal 608 - Sun Ray 2 tablet produced by Naturetech
Gobi 7 - Sun Ray 2 notebook produced by Accutech
Gobi 8 - Sun Ray 2 notebook with 3G support produced by Accutech
Ultra ThinPad - Sun Ray 2 notebook produced by Arima
Ultra ThinTouch - Sun Ray 2 tablet produced by Arima
UltraSlim - Sun Ray 2 variant produced by Arima

Discontinued software implementation (circa 1999) :

JavaPC (Engine) V1.1 [1]

Technology

The current Sun Ray 2 machines use the MIPS architecture-based RMI Alchemy Au1550 processor.^[2]

References

^ Rawn Shah (November 2, 1999). "Here comes the Sun Ray". SunWorld. IDG. Retrieved 2008-08-18.
^ http://www.sun.com/sunray/sunray2/specs.xml Sun Ray 2 Specs

External links

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[1] Rawn Shah (November 2, 1999). "Here comes the Sun Ray". SunWorld. IDG. Retrieved 2008-08-18.

[2] ttp://www.sun.com/sunray/sunray2/specs.xml Sun Ray 2 Specs

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 == Models ==
-As of January 2007, five models are in production:
+As of January 2007, three models are in production:
 * Sun Ray 2 - small footprint, low power (4 watts)
 * Sun Ray 2FS - support for [[Dual head|dual heads]], 100BaseFX