FULLY FUNCTIONAL, DISKLESS PCs running Windows could become a near-future reality thanks to work being done by IBM Research on technology called iBoot.

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Under development at Big Blue's Research facility in Haifa, Israel, iBoot leverages the fledgling iSCSI Ethernet protocol to connect diskless PCs to a host server over an organization's IP network, making it possible to boot the Windows operating system from the server, according to IBM.

Existing diskless boot technologies are only capable of booting the Linux operating system on Ethernet-tethered PCs. But iBoot is the first system able to boot both Windows 2000 and Windows XP from a remote server, according to IBM, based in Armonk, N.Y.

As iBoot technology eventually begins to appear in product form, companies could potentially find added IT cost savings by centralizing Windows OSes and PC client data storage onto a single, more easily manageable server.

Unlike IBM X-Stations, which can perform diskless boots from servers running IBM's AIX Unix-based OS, or Linux, by using an internal RAM code, iBoot machines contain a small ROM image that has the iSCSI client code, the TCP/IP data, and the BIOS interrupt code.

Additionally, iBoot PC clients can be added to the network without causing performance degradation to the entire client fleet, a problem that plagues X-Station, according to IBM.

iBoot PCs would also have an edge over thin-client systems which, while also dependent on a remote server, generally support a limited set of applications.

No public schedule has been set for iBoot's arrival in product form, but certain iSCSI connectors and Ethernet technologies are beginning to hit the market from a variety of vendors.