Plugable’s USB 2.0 Graphics Adapter (DisplayLink DL-195)

Posted on 07. Mar, 2010 by Bernie Thompson in UGA-2K-A

Plugable’s new USB 2.0 Graphics Adapter is now available on Amazon.com.

The DisplayLink DL-195 chip inside this adapter is the best high-end chip out there for adding a display over USB. And because it pushes USB 2.0 and analog VGA to their limits, it isn’t likely to be beaten by any other chip in the USB 2.0 generation.

For this new adapter from Plugable, we wanted to offer that high-end choice, and also make sure that everything else about the adapter package itself meets or beats any alternative out there.

  • The Plugable UGA-2K-A includes a DVI->HDMI adapter (in addition to the usual DVI->VGA adapter)
  • The latest drivers are available on Windows Update and from displaylink.com
  • Open source available, so there’ll be new software written for this device, even years from now
  • Public problem reporting and support, so you can always get the full story about the product
  • Amazon’s fast shipping and A-to-z guarantee on your purchase

In future posts, we’ll cover some of the cool things this device can do by enabling many displays on any PC (things like create the ultimate day-traders’ war-room, with many displays built around a single laptop).

Until then, you can read more about the product launch in the stuffily worded press release here. And more on the product page at http://plugable.com/products/uga-2k-a/.

Explaining multiseat benefits

Posted on 19. Nov, 2009 by Bernie Thompson in Windows

Following on the announcement of Windows Multipoint Server 2010, HP has announced their first product to connect with it: The HP MultiSeat thin client T100. It’s a DisplayLink-based device with VGA, PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports, and audio. It’s a focused competitor to the product that Plugable sells here, and they do a great job of explaining the benefits in video form here and here.

DisplayLink’s new thin client materials also provide a bunch of additional detail, with good bullet points on why simple USB connectivity provides real value for this scenario.

Companies like Sun, nComputing, Miniframe, and Userful have sold products for Windows and Unix in this space for some time. The unix world has had various forms of multiseat capability forever — not to speak of traditional X terminals and all the thin client network protocols like RDP, ICA, and VNC on Windows and Unix, which people think of first when they think of terminals.

But when it comes to true multiseat (locally connected devices, treated as terminals), Linux has had it first, has lots of advantages in terms of licensing cost and performance, has gotten hundreds of thousands of seats in use — and yet hasn’t quite make it easy enough for end users for it to reach its full audience.

So these new product launches, now with Microsoft on board, definitely have the ability to raise more awareness of the potential of this scenario. It’s a challenge to the Unix and Linux crowd to leverage their built in advantages — and continue working on the shortcomings of Linux as a client desktop — in order to continue to provide compelling competition in this market.

Either way, the additional exposure is great for communicating the potential of multiseat.

Video of Plugable Dock, DisplayLink, and Win7

Posted on 25. Oct, 2009 by Bernie Thompson in Windows

So what do you get when you take a Windows 7 box and plug in a USB multifunction dock with DisplayLink graphics, C-Media audio, ASIX ethernet, and a few other common USB devices? Without ANY driver disks?

A wonderful plug and play experience. See video below for more.

(like the subliminal message at the end? I can’t figure out how to make it go away. :) )

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