on and the advantages thereof, reference should be made to the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which:
Referring to the drawings, the present invention is described as follows.
The invention provides a novel Network Computer system named MMNC, its computing devices and methods used. The main part of its client-side device's hardware structure is a main board with some outer interfaces illustrated in
On the other side, the invention uses normal PCs or workstations as its servers.
In the first preferred embodiment of the invention, the codes of PXE (the Preboot Execution Environment) are stored in the BIOS chip on the mainboard to form the remote booting chip before the client can be used. For example, a Linux system is installed on one server as the operating system. A DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) server, a TFTP server and a PXE server are pre-installed and preset on the server. Besides the OS kernel (which can be Linux, Windows, etc.), mirror and root file system mirror used by the client are also pre-stored in the server, which includes the initial applications and corresponding data. After being powered on, which is controlled by the remote booting chip, the client uses the DHCP service to get its own IP address from the server, and then downloads the OS kernel mirror and root file system mirror by TFTP protocol. They are then stored into a local RamDisk created by the remote booting chip of the client in advance. After shifting the control to the OS, users can operate the client and use more complex functions like operating a traditional PC by accessing resources (programs, documents, data) from remote servers (their OS may be Linux Windows etc.) through existing network protocols such as FTP, NFS, and HTTP. The computing task is performed by the client. The detailed implementation of the single step of the said solution is within the existing art's area, so a lengthy description may not be necessary.
As for the second embodiment of the invention, an independent ROM as the remote booting chip is set in the client, storing the codes of the ETHERBOOT protocol. Similar to the above-mentioned example, a Linux system is installed on one of the servers as its operating system. A DHCP server, a TFTP server and an NFS server are pre-installed on the server. After being powered on, the client first uses a DHCP service to get its IP address from the server, then downloads and loads the OS kernel mirror, shifting the control, and loading the root file system mirror (including initial applications) through NFS protocol.
In the third embodiment of the invention, an independent ROM as the remote booting chip is set in the client, storing the codes of the RPL (Remote Program Load) protocol. A Windows 2000 server is installed on one of the servers as its OS in advance with the remote booting service of the Windows NT4 because the Windows 2000 server cannot provide support for remote booting by itself. After the client is powered on, it uses the RPL protocol to download and load the DOS or the Windows 3.2 OS mirror, and initial applications. After shifting the control, it may use METAFRAME to connect to servers for resource henceforth.
In the fourth embodiment of the invention, the codes of PXE are stored in an independent ROM as the remote booting chip on the mainboard. A Windows 2000 Server system is installed on one of the servers as its operating system. Both DHCP and PXE-PDK services are preset on the server. A sample client mirror is produced as follows: 1) temporarily connect a harddisk to the IDE interface of the client, 2) install on it the Windows 98 OS and initial application programs as done with a normal PC, 3) set and make the mirror file according to the LITENET. After that, the mirror is stored on the server. After being powered on, the client downloads and loads the mirror by the PXE. By using NET USE, the shared file of Windows 2000 server can be mapped into a network virtual disk for each client, therefore providing the data storage service for the Wi