An NC, connected to your local Network, most likely by UTP, thus by a cross-cable or HUB connecting to an X Server. Herafter called the Linux Box. Basically the NC is Made to work with either AS/400 , Windows NT or AIX Servers. These are all expensive solutions, however working with thin clients doesnt have to cost that much.
The model I have at my disposal is an IBM Network Station model 8361-100, On the inside you can find an 403PPC chip, some S3 vga components, an PCMCIA slot, and normal 72pins (parity ??) sims. I found 8+32 Mb in my edition.
Actually those 40Mb were major overkill. In full operation modus the NC only uses about with lot's of configuration panels a couple of telnet sessions and a X -query open only took up about 4Mb of ram. ) So taking out the 32Mb showed absolutely no significant loss of speed.
We proved it was no problem setting it up on a Linux only network. You`ll need a server that can provide you both with about 25Mb of free diskspace for the software, and the capacities to run a X -query. In the setup overhere we used a 486DX50 with 8Mb as a fileserver and I switch between another 486DX266 (PS/2 85) with 32Mb, and my Multia with 48Mb as the X server Off course, the fatster machines the better.
NC Kernel, fonts etc.
In order to boot the NC you will need its Kernel and fonts. About 25Mb of files are needed on the server. They can be found on an AIX 4.X with the Netstation modules installed. Or from the IBM Netstation Download Page
A working NFS server, like in every default Linux distribution. Approx 85Mb of diskspace has to be exported to the NC.
Any machine running XDM with enough memory, processor power will do. You don't need to have X configured on the machine itselve, it can perfectly be a monitorless server. Basic X Windows install will provide you with the necessary deamons.
Optionally