Measurement Techniques Inc. Announces Support for Intel-Microsoft NetPC

    STOUGHTON, Mass., Nov. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- In response to growing popularity
and interest in network computers (NetPCs), Measurement Techniques, Inc., the
technology leader in LAN caching, today announced its support for the NetPC,
the new breed of Microsoft-Intel desktop devices.
    The NetPC, recently announced by Microsoft Corp. and Intel Corp., is a
cheaper, simpler version of current personal computers. Although they will
have hard disks to process information and store data, the NetPCs will depend
on file servers to supply applications and software, reducing the large
management costs of maintaining applications on thousands of desktop machines.
    Shared LAN Cache (SLC(TM)) software from Measurement Techniques provides
critical performance enhancement technology to companies planning to
standardize on the new NetPCs without upgrading their networks and file
servers.  This caching technology is not provided with Microsoft Windows 95,
NT or Novell's new Client 32 products.
    "The NetPC, with application software loading from central file servers,
will certainly reduce the costs of managing desktop devices," said Clinton
Battersby, president of Measurement Techniques, Inc.  "However, without SLC
network caching, NetPCs may not be able to deliver on their promise of low-
cost / high-performance application delivery to the desktop.  MTI's SLC
products provide the NetPC with the caching technology necessary to guarantee
high performance independent of file server and network load."
    SLC dramatically improves performance by caching repeatedly accessed files
to a non-volatile local cache on the hard disk of the NetPC. For example, a
NetPC user may load the MS-Word program from a file server multiple times
throughout the day.  Using SLC as a NetPC accelerator,  Word is automatically
stored in the SLC cache the first time it is accessed.  The next time the user
wants to run Word, the application is loaded from the high speed local cache
without burdening the file server and network with unnecessary traffic. Even
after removing power from the NetPC, the information is still in the local
cache, available immediately when the user loads the Word application software
the next day.
    "SLC for the NetPC continues the theme of ease of use and low cost
software deployment/support," said Battersby. "SLC performance gains are
visible immediately and the software can be deployed throughout an entire
organization in less than a day.  It is an IT manager's dream come true."
    In the future, MTI anticipates some PC manufacturers will supply diskless
NetPCs with Flash Memory which is many times faster than a hard disk for a
local non-volatile cache.  MTI also offers an SLC Server which presents a
shared cache to a group of NetPCs.  MTI plans to license it's Shared LAN Cache
technology to a wide range of leading PC and enterprise network manufacturers.
    SLC software is available today for MS-DOS, Windows V3.1, Windows 95 and
Windows NT.  SLC is NOS independent and requires no changes to existing file
servers.  The software is licensed per client, $99/single user, $4995/100
user, with volume pricing available. SLC Server software prices begin at
$1,500 for a 25 users license.
    Measurement Techniques, Inc., headquartered in Stoughton, Massachusetts,
is a leading supplier of high performance LAN caching solutions.  Its Shared
LAN Cache products provide users with dramatically increased network
performance, cost savings and increased productivity.  Measurement  Techniques
is a privately funded corporation.  For more information on Measurement
Techniques or Shared LAN Cache, visit http://www.lancache.com on the World
Wide Web.
    NOTE: Shared LAN Cache is a trademark of Measurement Techniques, Inc. MS-
DOS, Windows, Windows 95 and Windows NT are trademarks of Microsoft Corp. All
other trademarks belong to their respective companies.