Design
In contrast to a thick client, the Sun Ray is a networked display device, with applications running on a server elsewhere, and the state of the user's session being independent of the display. This enables another notable feature of the Sun Ray, portable sessions: a user can go from one Sun Ray to another and continue their work without closing any programs. With a smart card, all the user has to do is insert the card and they will be presented with their session. Reauthentication requirement depends on the mode of operation. Without the smart card, the procedure is almost identical, except the user must specify their username as well as password to get their session. In either case, if a session does not yet exist, a new one will be created the first time they connect.
Sun Ray clients are connected via an Ethernet network to the Sun Ray Server. Sun Ray Software (SRS) is available for the Solaris and Linux. Sun developed a separate network display protocol, Appliance Link Protocol (ALP), for the Sun Ray system. The protocol is now also supported by VMware View.
The Sun Ray Software has two basic modes of operation — Generic Session or Kiosk Mode. In a generic session, the user will see the Solaris or GNU/Linux login screen of the operating system that is running SRS. In Kiosk mode, the log in screen varies depending on the session type in use. Kiosk mode can be used for a number of different desktop or applications. Oracle has integrated a RDP client, VMware View client into the Sun Ray software that can be used in Kiosk mode to start a full screen Windows session. In this mode, no window manager or Unix desktop is started. The Windows environment can be any OS that supports RDP.
In 2007, Sun and UK company Thruput integrated the Sun Ray 2FS with 28" (2048 × 2048), 30" (2560 × 1600) and 56" (3840 × 2160) displays; in 2008 they trialled an external graphics accelerator that enables the Sun Ray to be used with any high resolution display.
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