Diskless workstation
<computer, networking> A
personal computer or
workstation which has neither a
hard disk nor
floppy disk drive and which performs all file access via a
local area network connection to a
file server.
The lowest level
bootstrap code is stored in
non-volatile storage.
This uses a simple
protocol such as
BOOTP to request and
download more sophisticated boot code and eventually, the
operating system.
The archtypal product was the
3Station developed by Bob Metcalfe at 3Com.
Another example was the
Sun 3/50.
Diskless workstations are ideal when many users are running the same application.
They are small, quiet, more reliable than products with disks, and help prevent both the theft of data and the introduction of viruses since the software and data available on them is controlled by the network administrator or system administrator.
They do however rely on a server which becomes a disadvantage if it is heavily loaded or
down.
See also
breath-of-life packet.
