ndows 98 system
In the fifth embodiment of the invention, an independent ROM as the remote booting chip is set on the client mainboard, storing a remote booting protocol to support the loading of multi-OS. A Linux system is installed on one of the servers as its operating system. A DHCP server, NFS service, and SAMBA service are preset and installed on the server. The server also stores various Linux and Windows OS mirrors, including corresponding initial applications. The remote booting chip is slightly different in functionality from the above mentioned ones. The client downloads a script from the server after getting its own IP address. By executing the script, the client prompts users to select the desired OS from a candidate list displayed on the client's screen. According to the user's selection, the client downloads and loads the corresponding mirror. The client is provided with file services by NFS or SAMBA services, and uses demand loading techniques to implement application optimization of the client, thus it can support abundant desktop applications.
As an improvement, by using some existing virtual disk techniques (such as RamDisk, NFS, NBD etc.), client daemon programs can be preset within the downloading mirrors stored on the server, while the corresponding server daemon programs are preset on the server or some other servers, so that virtual disk space for this client are made both on the server and/or local memory. So after the client daemon program has been run by a client, it can be provided with persistent and/or temporary private disk space (different from the diskless workstation). As a result, data generated during or after the computing process on the client can be persistently stored into servers' storage and/or cached in its memory. For the sake of safety, data temporarily stored in the virtual disk in the client memory can be exported manually by the system administrator from time to time, or automatically exported to servers' storage through NFS service by setting another client daemon program in the client's mirror which functions every time the client will be shut down.
Generally, the embodiments describe a type of Network Computer system-MMNC, which is based on the Transparence Computing paradigm, as follows: 1) the system consists of clients and servers; 2) the client is diskless; 3) none of the OS are pre-installed in the client, rather, a remote booting chip is set on the mainboard of the client; 4) varied supporting services are preset on the servers; 5) resources for clients' use such as OS mirrors, applications, documents and data are also stored on the servers; 6) after being powered on, the client begins to execute booting codes stored in its non-volatile storage; 7) the client makes contact with the server by broadcasting, and then obtains its IP address allocated by the server which has received the client's broadcasting request; 8) the client then downloads an OS-selecting script; 9) after selection by the user, the client sends a download request for the mirror (OS kernel, root file system including initial applications) to the server; 10) the server transmits the mirror to the client after receiving the request; 11) the client receives and loads the mirror, which completes the booting procedure of the client. As for the client, the computing work is occurs locally. The client can download the requested applications and needed data from servers on demand; during and after the computing, the produced data can be cached in memory or be stored on servers. These differences make MMNC free from problems of the traditional NC system, namely that the client has very heavy dependence on the server when running, especially when it's processing some multimedia applications, and can support only limited variety of applications. The current invention also increases the server's maximum supporting number of clients. Moreover, users can choose to download and load a specific OS according to their preference or requirements.
What can be seen from the above is that, similar to traditional NC sys