Elias Biryabarema
1 October 2008
Kampala — A computing device that allows multiple computer users to share the resources of a single mother computer has been launched in Uganda and it is expected to permit a broad range of companies and public institutions to vastly expand computer use in their business operations.
The devices--virtual computer terminals--are manufactured by Ncomputing Inc, a US company that specializes in desktop multiplier solutions and they allow up to seven people to share one computer. An organization needs to buy only one desktop PC (monitor and CPU) and the buy seven more monitors and keyboards and then get the Ncomputing terminals and fix them on the monitors.
"This technology allows organizations to cut their spending on computer hardware and electricity bills by half because once you buy the terminals you won't spend on CPUs and you're using less than half of the electricity you were using," said Mr Frank Coggrave, Ncomputing Inc Vice President for Middle East and Africa at a function to officially unveil the product in Kampala on September 27th.
He said the technology of sharing computing power was pioneered in the US as a way of addressing the ever widening global digital divide. One billion people globally still do not have access to computers as the cost of computing has sharply declined over the last eight years.
In Uganda computer access and use are still extremely limited largely on account of the high incidence of poverty. That though has meant that a majority of school children are missing out on essential education materials that they could be accessing online and that has subsequently undermined the quality of the country's entire education system.
Mr Coggrave said they had struck up partnerships with governments in poor parts of the world like South America and Asia to provide the devices in schools and that the adoption of the devices had instantly improved computer use among school children.
Ncomputing's desktop multiplier solutions are vended in Uganda by Linux Solutions, a software support and computer networking company. Some IT experts have hailed it as capable of permitting Uganda to spread the use of computer and Internet while maintaining top standards in the ICT industry. Because Uganda is a poor country, there have been efforts by the ICT ministry to increase computer use in the country through alternative means: importation of refurbished PCs.
This measure has been criticized however as a way of dumping e-waste in Uganda by the Western world. Although the computers are refurbished, their lifetime once here remains short, usually about one or two years. Some, in fact, never work even after being revitalized.
The desktop multiplier devices though, according to IT experts have the potential to scale up computer access without resorting to second hand PCs since the virtual terminals will have tremendously brought down the costs involved in procuring brand new PCs.
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