In an effort to capitalize on the steady popularity of virtualization, the makers of low-power, thin client PCs announced Wyse Thin OS 6.2 has added for virtual desktop environments from VMware, Microsoft, and Citrix Systems.

The official announcement was made during the Citrix Synergy '08 convention in Houston, where companies are meeting to discuss virtualization and application delivery to clients. Wyse is one of Citrix's longstanding and most trusted partners.

Specifically, the OS has increased ability for multimedia content to be delivered using the Citrix Speedscreen Multimedia Acceleration software, and the ability for end users to be mobile without being forced to re-authenticate if they inadvertently lose connectivity.

Typically, customers think of virtualization as one way to make large applications distributed and usable from very small, spartanly equipped systems, by leveraging the power of servers to crunch the data and using clients basically as dumb displays. Microsoft's SoftGrid is an example of one such technology.

But in recent days, Wyse has been rolling out some intriguing new concepts for virtualization, including for device drivers. With recent versions of its new system, very thin clients can support hundreds of USB devices, including storage devices and Bluetooth adapters, without those drivers actually having to be installed on the clients themselves.

Also during the show, Wyse introduced the Wyse Viance family of devices, its latest line of thin client products designed specifically for the Citrix XenDesktop; and Viance Pro Mobile notebook shell device, which features a 15.4" screen, Gigabit network connectivity, 802.11 wireless support, and multimedia support.

Thin computing has become important as manufacturers have been able to market computers and notebooks with limited hardware while still being fully operational, and virtualization is helping thin clients become more popular. For example, the Wyse Viance PC is a low-power, fanless, diskless PC that helps users lower the cost of ownership but does not limit what can be accomplished through virtualization.