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Ubiquitous Computing Marches on: MINIATURE WEB SERVER FITS IN ASHIRT POCKET (fwd)
Subject: Ubiquitous Computing Marches on: MINIATURE WEB SERVER FITS IN A SHIRT
POCKET
MINIATURE WEB SERVER FITS IN A SHIRT POCKET 02.12.99
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Palo Alto, CA -- Vaughan Pratt has created the world's smallest web
server, a matchbox-sized device that is small enough to fit into a shirt
pocket. Using off-the-shelf components, the Stanford professor of computer
science has squeezed the hardware and software needed to operate a web site
into a package about one-tenth the volume of a Palm Pilot, the current
standard in handheld electronic organizers. The tiny device is less than 1
3/4 inches high, 2 3/4 inches wide and 1/4 inch thick and performs all the
basic functions of a typical desktop computer that occupies 3,000 times the
space.
"It's basically a powerful little computer," Pratt says. "We could have
set it up for a number of different uses. But, because most people think of
servers as mysterious boxes, located in dark basements and cranking out
stuff for everyone to see, I thought making it into a web server was
particularly dramatic."
Equally remarkable, Pratt assembled his matchbook computer from
off-the-shelf components. Other than a power supply, the tiny server is
complete. In tech terms, it consists of an AMD 486-SX computer with a 66
megahertz central processing unit, 16 megabytes of random access memory
(RAM), and 16 megabytes of flash read-only memory (ROM). It is connected to
the Internet through a parallel port and runs a cut-down version of Linux, a
popular version of the Unix operating system. Because the machine is a web
server, it does not need a keyboard or a display. It can be operated from
another computer over the web connection.
After putting the matchbox server online on Friday, Jan. 22, Pratt
notified fellow members of a small computer news group. From there, news of
the tiny server spread rapidly. By Sunday, the site had received more than
5,000 visitors. In the following five days it had racked up another 78,000
hits. The server's web page contains a picture of computer posed alongside a
collectible Russian matchbox. It also contains a detailed description of the
tiny computer and gives instructions on how computer hobbyists can build the
server themselves.
The previous title for world's smallest web server was held by Phar Lap
Software, using a custom computer that is 3.6 inches by 3.8 inches by 1 inch
in size (more than 10 times the size of the matchbox server). The Phar Lap
server provides up-to-date local weather data for Cambridge, Mass. According
to the company, its purpose is to demonstrate the possibilities for putting
"embedded systems" on the World Wide Web. Embedded systems are
special-purpose computers "embedded" in all sorts of electronic systems,
ranging from ovens, refrigerators and elevators to medical instruments and
factory robots.
By contrast, the new Stanford web server is one of the first projects of a
new Wearables Lab that Pratt has started. The lab is modeled after an older
and larger program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Both labs
are developing computer technology that can be incorporated directly into
clothing.
"Put this computer into your shirt pocket, hook it to a wireless modem,
and you could carry it around with you," Pratt says.
A person "wearing" such a computer can see what it is doing by donning and
plugging in a special kind of glasses that doubles as a computer display.
Such glasses are sold by several companies.
Right now, the biggest obstacle to producing a truly wearable computer is
the lack of a compact method for inputting data. Pratt and doctoral student
Greg Defouw are working on a special glove that can recognize a digital sign
language, called Thumbcode, that they have developed to replace the bulky
keyboard. And future versions of the matchbox computer should be powerful
enough to run voice recognition software, Pratt says.
The Wearables group is already working on a more powerful server, one
based on an Intel Pentium chipset. They intend to combine a credit-card-size
Pentium motherboard that Cell Computing introduced last fall with a new 340
megabyte hard drive from IBM that is a fraction of an inch thick and less
than 2 inches on a side.
"Such a system will be powerful enough to run the complete Windows
operating system and one of the voice-recognition programs currently on the
market," Pratt says.
For further information visit http://wearables.stanford.edu or
http://boole.stanford.edu/thumbcode
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