The University of North London is the first higher educational establishment in the United Kingdom to install Network Computers on their campus. The Network Computers from Neoware Systems Inc., (formerly HDS Network Systems) are being used in the first phase as dedicated workstations hooked up to a Sun Ultra Sparc 3000 Server running Sybase, giving students on-line access to the TalisWeb On-Line Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) of books and educational materials. The second phase of the project will be to use NCs to run TalisJV, the Java edition of Talis from BLCMP, to manage the library system. This will replace the existing VT220 interface.

The University's main motivation for choosing NCs was to minimise support and administration overheads. They had dismissed PCs early on in the decision making process because they felt students would find them too easy to break, and they wanted to establish a secure kiosk mode operation. Other important factors were the requirement for the Java Virtual Machine and the Netscape browser to run locally on the Neoware NC, rather than on the Sun Server in the UNIX version of the application, saving resources on the server and providing better response to the users.

The University eventually opted for the Neoware @workStation Network Computers because they fulfilled all the university's criteria, plus they could boot directly from the UNIX server running the BLCMP Talis system. Other NCs required them to purchase additional WinFrame servers as boot servers.

The university has now installed 43 Neoware Prima @workStations with 24 MB of memory equipped with the Netscape browser and built-in Java Virtual Machine, which were supplied by Momentum, a division of 4Front Products. They also plan to introduce smart cards to authorise access to the system once the standards have been ratified. Now several months into the project's implementation, Mike O'Reilly, EIS Manager at the University says: "The Network Computers from Neoware have completely fulfilled my expectations in offering an easy to manage environment with extremely high performance."

According to Pat Dunne, General Manager at Neoware Systems: "We were particularly pleased to win the contract for the University of North London as we see the educational market place as being well suited to Network Computers. We're delighted too at the reaction of some of the University staff which has gone from initial reticence at being the first educational establishment to adopt this technology, to pride at the belief that they now have the most efficient OPAC University library system in the country."

About Neoware Systems, Inc.

Neoware Systems, Inc. of King of Prussia, PA (formerly known as HDS Network Systems, Inc.) is a leading international supplier of Network Computers and related software, which are cost-effective solutions for the integration and delivery of information and applications to the desktop. The company's netOS operating system is based on an open architecture, incorporating industry standards to enable seamless access to multiple forms of information, including text, graphics, audio, and video, on any type of network.

Neoware has been first-to-market with virtually every new technology in the Network Computer industry because of the standards-based, open design of the Neoware netOS operating system. Neoware was first in the NC industry to supply Java, the Navigator web browser, email, video-conferencing, the ICA protocol and a full suite of terminal emulators. Many of these capabilities were added to the Neoware netOS operating system in a matter of weeks, while competitors have yet to offer them. Neoware considers the ability to quickly add capabilities to its products to be a major competitive advantage in the fast-moving Internet market, and plans to use this advantage to continue to maintain its lead in the NC market.

Neoware netOS, the operating system in Neoware's thin clients, is offered under license to OEMs for quick and easy deployment of application-specific Network Computers for a variety of markets. Neoware's products are distributed in the UK by Compass Distribution and available through their Network of Authorised resellers.