PCoIP Imaging - Progressive Image Refinement

December 12th, 2008

Highly efficient delivery of desktops over IP networks - especially WAN links:

PCoIP technology enables key features to optimize the delivery of a user’s desktop over standard local area and wide area networks (LAN and WAN). One of these features includes a progressive image refinement that allows a compressed image of the user’s desktop to be delivered quickly over the network and then a progressive refinement to an exact image of the user’s hosted desktop. This allows for a highly efficient desktop delivery over IP networks – especially WAN networks (long latency and possibly low bandwidth networks). In an interactive user session, the user may have moved to a follow-on action that eliminates the need to send the rest of the display pixels resulting in an efficient desktop delivery – and a significant benefit compared to solutions.

WAN PCoIP User Scenario:
The user’s desktop is delivered over a low bandwidth link across North America (~90-100ms round trip network latency). The user clicks on a web page (or a document, PowerPoint, 3D model, etc) and a highly-compressed, initial image is delivered quickly where the image is slightly grainy but the text is still clear and readable.

Initial highly compressed image – but clear text

Progressive Image Refinement Example #1
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PCoIP intelligently compresses the user display to ensure that in a constrained scenario (long latency, low bandwidth) the display text is still as crisp as if the desktop were local. However, images and video are highly compressed to minimize the network bandwidth load and to deliver the initial display image extremely quickly to ensure a responsive user desktop.

Perceptually Lossless – still compressed, but users cannot tell

Progressive Image Refinement Example #1
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The image is progressively refined and will reach a point we call “perceptually lossless” or the desktop appears to be an exact image of the source desktop at the host. However, in reality, there is still compression present and if there is still time (before the display is changed, window is moved, or hyperlink is clicked, the system will continue to build to a fully lossless image – or an exact image as the source display at the host.

The time it takes to refine the image depends on the available network bandwidth, but in most cases it is not possible for the user to see the refinement in progress. It just looks the same as if the PC was at the user’s desk.

Fully refined image – exact image as the source display in the host PC

Progressive Image Refinement Example #1
Click to Enlarge

Key benefits of progressive refinement in a WAN desktop delivery

  • Text delivered as exact image
    Text is sent as a lossless image so that users can always read text even if surrounding images are compressed
  • Desktop clarity at any distance
    Progressive refinement enables full image clarity and A fully crisp desktop display regardless of the distance
  • Highly responsive desktop
    Get an initial image quickly then build to a fully crisp desktop
  • Network bandwidth efficiency
    Do not send additional pixels if the users has changed something on the screen

Progressive refinement to an exact or lossless image is a critical feature for detailed image analysis whether it is for medical diagnostics, design engineering analysis or other applications that simply cannot have compression artifacts in the displayed image.

Extreme and Unique USB Security via PCoIP Technology

December 12th, 2008

PCoIP technology delivers unique USB security capability that is not possible on desktop, notebook or thin client form factors. This includes providing mobile users secure access to data via hardware encrypted flash drives – but only the devices approved by enterprise IT will work on the PCoIP desktop portal appliances. All other flash peripherals (or selected peripherals) would be locked out. This authorization is done in hardware so it is ultra secure.

“[PCoIP Technology] has a bunch of security features that are unachievable with desktop computers” - Tom Bradicich, VP IBM Systems and Technology

See video blog: “Extreme USB Security for Enterprise and Government

Unique Security Capablities
Click To Enlarge

Desktop portal appliances based on Teradici’s PCoIP Processors are fully stateless appliances with no local application operating system and no drivers at the desktop.

Teradici PCoIP Technology Unique USB Security Features:

  1. Support for all USB peripherals
    • Includes biometrics, card readers, etc.
    • Also includes webcams, scanners, tablets, DVD players with no special drivers.
  2. No drivers required on the desktop appliance
    • PCoIP Technology uses the drivers that are native to the host PC/server. So if the peripheral would work when plugged into the host PC, it will work bridged across an IP network to a PCoIP desktop portal.
    • Eliminates the threat of virus propagation from the desktop appliance (where thin client’s embedded OS can get infected with a virus and propagate to hosted client machines)
  3. Intelligent Authorization of USB peripherals.
    • Peripheral authorization can be done on device class, product ID, Vendor ID and even the peripheral serial number. The authorization can be done on a per user/group basis and only accept specific devices.
  4. Complete USB lockdown - no host enumeration of USB if peripheral is not authorized.
    • PCoIP technology transparently bridges USB traffic from the host PC/server in the datacenter to the desktop portal appliance. You could view this as an exceptionally long USB cable. Peripheral authorization is done at the desktop appliance when a peripheral is plugged in. If the device is authorized, the plug event is bridged back to the host PC and the device can be used as it normally would if the user was directly connecting the peripheral to the host PC.
    • If the device is not authorized, a message is displayed on the user’s screen to let them know the device is not authorized and the plug event is blocked in hardware at the desktop portal. For extreme security, the host PC physically cannot enumerate the USB peripheral and does not know that an attempt was made to connect a peripheral. This is unique to Teradici’s PCoIP technology.
  5. Management logs and alerts of attempted connection of un-authorized devices
    • PCoIP Technology allows management systems (see connection broker partner list) to track peripheral connections and attempted connections. Also, PCoIP enables these management systems to deliver alerts to identify users that are trying to connect unauthorized peripherals.

Example Scenario:

IT Problem:
Need to lock down sensitive corporate data, but need to provide certain users such as managers, directors and VP’s the ability to take data out of the office (at home, on the road etc).

Teradici PCoIP Solution:
Provide these users with a hardware encrypted flash drive so that if the flash is lost the data is still secure. Use PCoIP to deliver the users desktop to a secure desktop portal (see partner products). Disable all flash drives, but enable flash drives that match the product ID and vendor ID of the hardware encrypted flash drive.

When a user plugs in the approved flash drive into their desktop portal it is authorized and the plug event is bridged back to the host PC/Server. The user can then use the flash drive as normal. If an insecure flash drive, MP3 player or iPod is connected, the peripheral is not authorized and a message is displayed on the user’s desktop to notify them that the device is not authorized and the host PC/server does not ever know that the peripheral exists (no host plug event to enumerate).

For extreme security, the authorization could match the user and the serial number of the flash drive that was assigned to them.

ClearCube PCoIP Quad Display PCoIP Solution

December 12th, 2008

Clearcube Technologies delivers centralized computing solutions including products that support Teradici’s PCoIP Technology. Clearcube’s I9400 I/Port is the first PCoIP quad head desktop portal product available today.

This video provides a brief overview of ClearCube’s I9400 quad monitor PCoIP desktop portal appliance and the A-series blade PC/workstation products. Watch video >>

I9400 I/Port

I9400 I/Port

A-Series Blade PC Chassis

A-Series Blade PC Chassis

Learn more about ClearCube’s PCoIP Solutions, visit www.clearcube.com

BriForum 2008: Ericom Video Podcast

October 16th, 2008

Brian Madden speaks with James Lui, Director of Technical Services, Ericom and Stuart Robinson, Director of Business Development, Teradici at BriForum 2008 in Chicago.

To watch a live recording of Ericom’s connection broker demo of PowerTerm WebConnect supporting PC-over-IP protocol, go to http://media.brianmadden.com/briforumplayer/bfplayerdynamic.asp?id=420.

Ericom’s PowerTerm WebConnect Connection Broker Solution

August 1st, 2008

With deployment of host compute resources and 100’s to 1000’s of desktop portals in enterprise environments, a connection management tool is needed to get users connected to the right datacenter resources. This includes dynamic scenarios where users could connect to their datacenter compute resource from their desk, from a meeting room, or from a remote office or home office. Ericom’s PowerTerm Webconnect is a connection broker for physical and/or virtual desktops including Microsoft Terminal Services and various VDI solutions. Webconnect also incorporates capability to broker and manage PC-over-IP (PCoIP) sessions.

Physical Desktops

  • PC Blades (via PC-over-IP or RDP)
  • Physical Workstations (via PC-over-IP or RDP)
  • Microsoft Terminal Server (via RDP)

Virtual Desktops (VDI via RDP today)

  • VMware
  • Microsoft
  • Oracle Xen
  • RedHat Xen
  • Novell Xen
  • XenServer
  • Virtual Iron

Ericom’s PowerTerm WebConnect solution centrally manages access to PCoIP desktop portals and includes key connection broker capabilities such as:

  • Active Directory/LDAP integration
  • Connection broker with flexible connection capability,
    • Fixed seating
    • Free seating
    • Pooled hosts
    • Fail-over (supports PCoIP and RDP for remote access and disaster recovery access)
  • Desktop Virtualization (VDI),
  • Presentation Virtualization (Terminal Services)


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PC-over-IP Experience on Rack Workstations

August 1st, 2008

Last week, Dell announced the latest Precision Workstation product supporting PC-over-IP (PCoIP) technology. Dell’s new platform is shown in the photo below. The R5400 rack workstation (shown on the left) and FX100 remote access device (middle) incorporate PCoIP hardware-based compression and decompression technology. This solution delivers the full power that workstation users are accustomed to — remotely, securely, and with no performance degradation. Read what some users are already saying about this product here.

Image of Workstation

The R5400 marks the first PCoIP product available in a rack workstation form factor. Other partners continue to deliver PCoIP solutions in alternative form factors like blade PCs.

Teradici’s Seeing Is Believing Event in NYC

May 28th, 2008

PC-over-IP Desktop Virtualization Demonstration

May 5-8, 2008

This past week Teradici teamed up with Amulet Hotkey and Ericom Software to demonstrate Teradici’s PC-over-IP technology and some recent developments in the area of virtualized desktops and WAN optimizations.

  • Desktop Virtualization using PC-over-IP (in a hypervisor environment)
  • Quad display trader station
  • Recent PC-over-IP WAN optimizations

The demonstrations also included trader desk products from Amulet Hotkey and Ericom’s connection manager.

teradici-blog.jpg

Highlights:

  • Shows multiple users per host PC using an open-source Xen hypervisor
  • Supports any media type (Microsoft, Google, Flash etc)
  • Supports all USB peripherals including isochronous webcam and printer/copier/scanner shown above (using the standard drivers that came with the appliances - no special host drivers, no extra software fees and no drivers on desktop portal)

Setup:

  • Multiple virtual desktops driven from a single host PC including Microsoft Vista, and XP instances
  • Host PC – Intel Core2 Quad w/ VT-d virtualization
  • Hypervisor – open-source Xen v3.2
  • PC-over-IP – TERA Host PCIe cards
  • Desktop - DevonIT TC-10 PC-over-IP Desktop Portal

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1) Quad Display PC-over-IP Trader Workstation – bottom four displays

  • 4 displays driven via PC-over-IP to a host workstation (Dell XPS machine)
  • Amulet’s prototype quad display PC-over-IP portal based on Teradici devices
  • Amulet K4vu – intelligent KVM switch supporting 4 different host PCs
  • Amulet – AHK3000 trader keyboard

Application Content: Live Reuters market data, Windows WMV HD video, AMD-NVIDIA 3D DirectX visualizer, 3D CAD, high resolution medical images, PowerPoint, etc.

2) PC-over-IP Technology Showing Recent WAN Optimizations - top left display

  • Desktop PC-over-IP portal
  • Host – ASUS gaming laptop with PC-over-IP host card
  • Connected through network impairment router to add delay 0ms up to 300ms. This corresponds to about 12,000 km separation between the PC-over-IP host and PC-over-IP portal (across North America, N.A to Europe, N.A to Asia).
  • Network speeds from 3Mbps up to 120Mbps

3) Reuters Display – top middle left

  • Reuters account showing market information (directly driven from PC)

4) Presentation PC (directly driven by PC) – top middle right display
5) Network impairment System Display – top right display

  • Provides the ability to add network delay from 0ms to 300ms between the Top


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Ericom Connection Broker Demo

  • 2x Dual display PC-over-IP desktop portals (driven by host PCs - Dell XPS)
  • 1x Management server (includes Server2003 and Ericom’s connection broker)
  • Ericom’s PowerTerm WebConnect product is used for centrally managed access to Teradici-based PC-over-IP Desktop Portals
  • ActiveDirectory/LDAP integration
  • Connectionbroker with flexible connection capability,
    • Fixed seating
    • Free seating
    • Pooled hosts
    • Fail-over (supports PC-over-IP and RDP for remote access and disaster recovery access)
    • Desktop Virtualization (VDI), Presentation Virtualization (Terminal Services)

Remote 3D Workstation Demo at COE 2008 - Day 2 & 3

April 29th, 2008

Teradici Booth

Teradici’s booth showing PC-over-IP technology demonstration systems. The demo systems included a single Vista workstation and a dual display CATIA workstation showing CAD models, a SpaceExplorer 3D mouse, HD videos, webcam, etc.

coe_2008_4b.jpg

PC-over-IP powered IBM HC10 Workstation Blade & CP20 Desktop Portal – Industry’s first workstation blade to achieve CATIA certification.

Vendor Solutions Theater Schedule

Teradici presents at COE Vendor Solutions Theater on Tuesday, April 29 at 10:50 a.m.

Industry First CATIA Certified Blade Workstation

Industry First CATIA Certified Workstation Blade

  • Any 3D graphics (DirectX10, OpenGL, Aero/WPF etc)
  • Any application, any peripheral, and any OS
  • Full frame rates, high-resolution and zero CPU loadng
  • IBM HC10 Workstation Blade and BladeCenter S Chassis

    IBM HC10 Workstation Blade and BladeCenter S Chassis

    Team Teradici at COE 2008 PLM Conference & TechniFair

    Team Teradici at COE 2008 PLM Conference & TechniFair

    Remote 3D Workstation Demo at COE 2008 - Day 1

    April 28th, 2008

    coe_2008-small.gifBuena Vista, FL - Teradici today at COE 2008 Annual PLM Conference & TechniFair will showcase a dual-display remote workstation running CATIA, industry’s leading solution for product design excellence (http://www.3ds.com/products/catia/). COE is an international, professional organization uniting and supporting the users of Dassault Systemes software such as CATIA. COE has over 80,000 users in 400 member companies that represent 11 industries.

    Teradici will present at the COE TechniFair Vendor Solutions Theater on Tuesday, April 29th at 10:50am. Title: Delivering a Rich Workstation Experience to Your Desktop Using PC-over-IP® Technology.

    Teradici’s PC-over-IP technology delivers breakthrough innovation in computer display compression to deliver a true workstation experience over standard IP networks. PC-over-IP technology delivers key advantages over other consolidation techniques for design engineering workstations including:

  • Full frame rate remote 3D graphics
  • Zero CPU loading – all cycles are available for the application
  • Fully stateless and secure desktop appliance
  • Full USB interoperability (space balls, webcams, multi-function printer/copier/scanners etc)
  • Full OS and Application interoperability
  • Stay tuned for additional pictures and show updates.

    A New Beginning for the PC!

    August 18th, 2007

    Hi Everyone,

    Welcome to Teradici.

    Today we are officially launching our company and our product, something we call PC-over-IP. We think it is going to fundamentally change the way computers are deployed, managed, used, and yes, even enjoyed.

    Several years ago, my co-founders Dave, Maher, Ken and I were looking for a really tough problem to solve - and hopefully one that was interesting enough start a new company around. Like any good start-up, it had to represent not only a difficult technical problem, but also had to solve a big pain point that customers and end-users would love to see solved. And of course it helped necessary things like financing if there happened to be a huge potential market for it.

    After looking at several opportunities in several different markets, everything from consumer electronics to wireless to storage, we noticed that many large IT organizations were struggling with the problem of the desktop PC. No question it was powerful. And it provided a fantastic user experience with great graphics, video and multimedia. And was used by virtually every employee in every company around the world.

    However many IT organizations in different vertical industries were really struggling with the desktop PC. As security threats increased, and wide ranging compliance legislation was mandated, the ability to ensure corporate PC’s could be managed and secured was now a huge issue. It was also time consuming. It was also expensive.

    The obvious answer was centralization. If everything is placed back in the secure datacenter, all under IT control, everything suddenly becomes much easier to manage, secure and ensure compliance to. In fact servers had enjoyed this luxury for some time - so why not do the same thing for the Enterprise PC. Shouldn’t the PC get the same benefits as servers - things like storage networks, blades, and virtualization?

    Just one problem. The user is still at their desk. And we as users do not want anything other then the latest and greatest desktop experience. High resolution displays. High definition audio. Any type of USB device. Multiple monitors. Any application. No compromises!

    And this is where PC-over-IP and Teradici was born. What if we could develop a chip that for the first time let users and computers be separated by an IP network?

    Where the operating system and applications ran just as they would on a standard PC workstation.

    Where the user - even a high end workstation user - could not tell that the PC was no longer under their desk.

    And everything - from display resolution to the type of USB devices able to connect - was completely under IT control. Everything or nothing, depending on the user using the system.

    So now three years later we are introducing our technology to deliver on that initial vision. And our first customers - IBM, Devon IT, ClearCube, and Verari - are introducing products today that we think will revolutionize how PC’s are deployed in the Enterprise. For the first time ever - a completely uncompromised user experience with the all of the benefits of complete centralization.

    Everybody wins!

    I hope that you will all get an opportunity to see for yourself our technology and usher in this new beginning for the PC.

    Thank you!

    Dan.

    PS - Let us know what you think, I’d love to hear your comments, suggestions, and feedback.