HP ZCentral Remote Boost, formerly known as HP Remote Graphics Software or HP RGS is a client-server

remote desktop In computing, the term remote desktop refers to a software- or operating system feature that allows a personal computer's desktop environment to be run remotely off of one system (usually a PC, but the concept applies equally to a server or a ...

software developed by

HP Inc. HP Inc. is an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California, that develops personal computers (PCs), printers and related supplies, as well as 3D printing solutions. It was formed on November ...

and initially launched in 2003. HP RGS enables remote access to high-performance workstations (or virtual workstations) from many different devices including other Workstations, PCs, Windows tablets, MacBooks and

thin-client In computer networking, a thin client is a simple (low-performance) computer that has been optimized for establishing a remote connection with a server-based computing environment. They are sometimes known as ''network computers'', or in th ...

s. The software is targeted at remote access to graphic intensive applications, Video editing and complex 3D models. Collaboration, or screen sharing, between multiple users, remote USB and sound, as well as Windows and

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...

are also supported. HP markets RGS for "Real-Time Collaboration", "Workstation-Class Mobility" and "Remote Workers" In 2020 HP updated and re-branded RGS as part of the HP ZCentral Solution. ZCentral Remote Boost was awarded an Engineering

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

in 2020 for enabling TV productions around the world to make it to air despite teams being unable to access their usual studios. With HP RGS all the processing, including hardware-accelerated graphics with the latest OpenGL or DirectX rendering, is done on the workstation and only compressed bitmap images (the screen) are sent to the client device. HP RGS is distinguished by its proprietary compression algorithms which allows for real-time transmission of complex 3D images and video, which traditional remote desktop protocols struggle with. This opens up the use of remote desktops and thin clients to graphics-intensive industries such as

CAD Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computers (or ) to aid in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design. This software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve co ...

, oil and gas exploration, animation, architecture engineering and construction which previously required local workstations. Performance improvements in RGS 7.1 opened up even more demanding use cases including remoting 4K displays, delivering 60 frames per second, or remote desktop sessions of 3D CAD applications with peak bandwidth usage under 3 Mbit/s. In 2014 HP released RGS 7.0 which brought remote workstation use cases to tablet devices. The remote desktop tool has shown resilience against latency and packet loss when compared to Citrix HDX 3D or Teradici's PCoiP. There are two components to the software, the sender (for the workstation or server) and the receiver (for the client device). The software supports

OpenGL OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) is a cross-language, cross-platform application programming interface (API) for rendering 2D and 3D vector graphics. The API is typically used to interact with a graphics processing unit (GPU), to achieve hardwa ...

and Microsoft

Direct Direct may refer to: Mathematics * Directed set, in order theory * Direct limit of (pre), sheaves * Direct sum of modules, a construction in abstract algebra which combines several vector spaces Computing * Direct access (disambiguation), a ...

X. The software is sold stand alone for servers, virtual machines and non HP Workstations. HP started including RGS with all of its desktop Z brand workstations starting with version 5.4.7 in 2011. RGS can be downloaded from HP and run on HP Z Workstations and ZBook mobile workstations for free. Other hardware requires a license for the HP RGS sender. The receiver is a free download for Windows, Linux and macOS clients. An early version of the HP RGS

video compression In information theory, data compression, source coding, or bit-rate reduction is the process of encoding information using fewer bits than the original representation. Any particular compression is either lossy or lossless. Lossless compression ...

codec A codec is a device or computer program that encodes or decodes a data stream or signal. ''Codec'' is a portmanteau of coder/decoder. In electronic communications, an endec is a device that acts as both an encoder and a decoder on a signal or da ...

, is derived from a patented system developed by

HP Labs HP Labs is the exploratory and advanced research group for HP Inc. HP Labs' headquarters is in Palo Alto, California and the group has research and development facilities in Bristol, UK. The development of programmable desktop calculators, ink ...

and used in the

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

Mars Rover A Mars rover is a motor vehicle designed to travel on the surface of Mars. Rovers have several advantages over stationary landers: they examine more territory, they can be directed to interesting features, they can place themselves in sunny pos ...

program.

Industry Use Cases

HP Remote Graphics software is used in many industries including:

Oil and Gas

HP RGS is used for its performance with high visual fidelity and support for Linux-based applications. The massive amounts of data going into the visualizations make a server/client model ideal.

Financial Traders

HP RGS stability and support for multiple high resolution displays and fast update rate have made it ideal for this market since the release of the HP Blade Workstation solution in 2006.

Animation, TV, Film and Special Effects

HP RGS support for remote video editing, Linux-based applications, real time collaboration and visual fidelity have made it ideal for TV, film and animation studios.

Architecture Engineering and Construction

HP RGS is used for collaboration to enable subject matter experts to work on various projects around the globe. Centralizing large data sets and remoting the pixels allows users to spend more time working and less time loading the project for the day.

Product Design

HP RGS is used to collaborate on design projects and enable remote workers.

Education

Engineering and Animation programs get the same benefits as their professional counterparts with the added benefit of allowing students to access the expensive applications from home 24/7.

Versions

The HP RGS release notes are posted a
www.hp.com/go/rgs

References

{{Reflist

External links

Remote Graphics Software homepage
HP software NASA spin-off technologies Remote desktop protocols Remote desktop Thin clients Virtualization software