Wyse

Infobox_Company | company_name = Wyse Technology
company_type = Private
company_slogan = Global Leader in Thin Computing
foundation = 1981
location = San Jose, California
key_people = CEO: Tarkan Maner
= Customer Service Manager: Bob Severson
industry = Computer Systems| products = Thin clients | homepage = [http://www.wyse.com/ www.wyse.com]

Wyse is a company which manufacturers a type of computer hardware called thin clients. However, it is most widely known and remembered as the name and manufacturer of a type of computer terminal.

Wyse Technology was founded in 1981 by Garwing Wu, Bernard Tse, and Grace Tse. Its headquarters are in San Jose, California.

The company was known in the 1980s as the manufacturer of Wyse terminals. Although Wyse terminals are generally incompatible with VT100 and ANSI compatible terminals, many Wyse terminals do have the ability to emulate terminals that are ANSI-compatible. Most Wyse terminals can emulate several other brands of terminals and also have a proprietary native set of escape sequences. Many people recognize Wyse terminals as those used with older Dynix library information systems (electronic card catalog). The Wyse 100 terminal had optional WyseWord firmware available which programmed the keyboard for use with WordStar. The Wyse 99GT and Wyse 160 terminals added graphical capability through Tektronix 4014 emulation.

In 1984, Wyse entered the personal computer marketplace. The first of these was the Wyse 1000, a computer based on the 80186 (which due to Intel issues with compatibility with the 8088 did not see huge volumes). Next came the WYSEpc, an IBM compatible computer based on the 8088 processor, which had a good following due to its slimline design. Later, Wyse introduced personal computers compatible with the IBM AT based on the 80286 and 80386, which were top sellers. WYSE sold thru 2-tier distribution, which limited growth in the late 1980s as "mail order" companies like Dell and Gateway entered the marketplace.

Wyse was also an early innovator in off-shore electronics production with its products being built in Taiwan in company owned facilities.

Since the late 1990s, the company's primary business has been the manufacture of thin clients called the Wyse Winterm. Thin clients are a type of hardware similar to computer terminals in that they are solid-state with no moving parts (no hard disk and no fans), and are put on the desks of users so that they can access centrally executing business applications. What has changed since the days of traditional text-mode terminals is the mechanism of application access. Thin clients are able to access graphical windowing applications using protocols that send drawing commands or rectangles of pixels over a network connection rather than sending strings of text characters over a serial connection as was done with terminals.

Notable employees

Martin Eberhard began his career as an electrical engineer at Wyse Technology, where he designed the WY-30 ASCII computer terminal as his first product.

David Grus, Philip Graham, Jo Ellen Wagner and Kevin Martin were some of the first engineers working on the WY-1000, and later the WYSEpc. The first computers @ WYSE. This team had previously worked at HP where they worked on the first personal computers at HP in the very early 80's such as the HP-150 touch screen computer. Grus is now retired, Graham is the lead for Cisco's TelePresence products, and Wagner is now also at Cisco working on TelePresence as well.

David Dix worked first on the very first WYSE terminals and later the high end personal computers. David also worked at HP prior to WYSE. Dix is working at Shoretel.

Richard Wales was the lead hardware engineer on the first Color Terminal at WYSE known as the WY-350. Richard also worked at HP prior to WYSE where he worked on the HP-150 touch screen computer. Wales is at Cisco the director of engineering for Cisco's TelePresence products.

External links

* [http://www.wyse.com Wyse Technology corporate website]
* [http://www.wyse.com/Service/support/kbase/wyseterm.asp Wyse terminals Support Knowledge Base]
* [http://www.wyse.com/green EarthSmart Computing]