If the IT departments within most businesses were honest with themselves, they would realize that few of their employees require a full-blown, stand-alone tower or workstation to get their work done. So why incur the energy, management and maintenance costs?

HP is hoping to get more businesses in a thin client state of mind with today’s launch of the gt7720 (pictured above), t5730w and t5630w. They all run Microsoft Windows Embedded Standard, the latest iteration of XP Embedded and feature power-saving processors from AMD and VIA. The gt7720 gets a 2.3 GHz AMD Turion dual core processor; the t5730w gets an AMD Sempron 2100+; and the $500 t5630w is outfitted with a 1.0 GHz VIA Eden chip.

On the software side, there’s HP Client Automation to centralize and speed up thin client updates and HP Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) Enhancements that improve multimedia handling for smoother video and USB peripheral management. The RDP software was developed with delivering a seamless experience for VMware shops, according to HP:

HP RDP Enhancements now available on HP Thin Clients with Windows XP Embedded create a near-desktop experience for VMware View environments, including support for the latest VMware View Manager 3 broker. The software works seamlessly with any VMware View environment, with no need for additional employee training. Users simply log in on the thin client to take advantage of its multimedia features, such as training videos, and USB device support.

HP and VMware also are working together to enable VMware View Manager’s universal access feature to leverage HP RGS for remote desktop sessions. HP RGS will deliver a rich multimedia and collaborative VMware virtual desktop experience.

Source: Press Release