Dr. Dobb's Journal November 1999
A graduate student at the University of Massachusetts, H. Shrikumar, has developed the most recent "world's smallest web server" -- literally smaller than a typical fingernail. Researchers have been leap-frogging each other with ever-smaller web-server implementations, but this one will be hard to beat. The nearest competitor is a matchbox-sized 486SX implementation from Stanford University's Wearable Computing Laboratory. While the Stanford web server is basically a full-fledged single-board PC costing several hundred dollars to manufacture (see http://wearables.stanford.edu/), Shrikumar's "iPic Server" is made from parts costing a few dollars.
The key to the iPic Server is that Shrikumar managed to shrink an RFC-1122-compliant TCP/IP stack to 256 bytes. Using an 8-bit PIC microcontroller coupled with a 32-KB EEPROM, the system can fit on a circuit board about the size of a match-head. A proof-of-concept demonstration (see http://www-ccs.cs .umass.edu/~shri/ iPic.html) includes several Java applets and Postscript files describing the system, all stored in 32 KB on the EEPROM. The tiny iPic Server would be ideal for controlling appliances and other simple devices via the Internet.
Shrikumar told DDJ that "the biggest challenge was developing the TCP/IP stack. Setting up the system took only about 15 days, but it took over four months to develop a minimal TCP/IP stack that conformed to the standard and would deliver well-behaved packets." In addition to the TCP/IP stack, Shrikumar wrote a tiny real-time operating system (essentially an RMA task-scheduler) and a simple telnet implementation for editing files on the chip.
It's hard to imagine how a new microprocessor could have anything in common with public restroom toilet partitions, but Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has managed to make the connection. AMD's new line of Athlon processors shares its name with a trademarked material called "Athlon," manufactured by Trespa North America, Ltd. According to Trespa's web site (http://www.trespa.com/), "Toilet Partitions made from Trespa Athlon¨ panels function well in humid areas such as around swimming pools, shower areas, or gyms." Lest there be any confusion, Athlon panels can be cleaned with soap and water, a practice not recommended for Athlon processors. The moral: Trademark searches are a good thing.
The principles of quantum mechanics are leading to advances in controlling light for optical applications. The quantum optics group at Texas A&M University, led by physics professors Marlan Scully and George Welch, has come up with a way of slowing down light by a factor of 3 million using a relatively inexpensive and simple process. Heating the metal rubidium to 100 degrees Celsius, which turns it into a vapor, and then passing light through the heated gas, slows down the speed of light to about 90 meters per second. The possibility of manipulating light at such slow speeds could lead to, among other things, new methods for controlling optical signals, storing optical data, and developing optical switches.
The key to the process is that the light-absorptivity of the rubidium vapor can be controlled by applying a separate laser beam to the vapor. The laser beam changes the quantum state of the rubidium subatomic particles so that the vapor is virtually transparent, thus preserving the intensity of the light passing through the gas at the slow speed. And since the light intensity can be varied, the process can be applied to the concept of optical switching. Signal delay is another potential application for this process. The rubidium process can be achieved in a container the size of a test tube, potentially eliminating the need for extensive fiber optic cabling to produce signal delays. For more information, see http:// focus.aps.org/v3/st37.html.
Before long, pumping gas will join the ranks of just another online experience. BP Amoco, Microsoft, and gas-pump manufacturer Tokheim have teamed up to develop gas pumps running Windows CE with a web-browser terminal, from which you can check e-mail and surf the Internet while pumping gas. Whether this is a good idea remains to be seen. Still, it may be a boon for companies wanting to advertise their wares. According to The Wall Street Journal (August 17, 1999), the average gas pump serves about 70 people per day. Multiply that by 100,000 pumps and an ad on a pump web terminal could reach 7 million consumers.
The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) has declined to support a plan by the Texas Professional Engineers Licensing Board (http://www.main.org/ peboard/) to administer a licensing exam for software engineers, as it does for traditional engineering disciplines such as mechanical and civil engineering. In a policy statement, the ACM announced that it "is opposed to the licensing of software engineers at this time because ACM believes that it is premature and would not be effective at addressing the problems of software quality and reliability." According to the policy statement, the ACM is committed to improving software quality by promoting research and development, and "identifying standards of practice." Meanwhile, the Texas licensing board has postponed the establishment of a software engineering license.
Muddying the OS waters as only it can do, Microsoft has announced Windows NT Embedded 4.0 -- a version of NT targeting OEMs developing high-end embedded products such as integrated voice response systems, PBXs, call center systems, medical appliances, and advanced printers. The primary difference between standard NT 4.0 and NT Embedded 4.0, is that the embedded version has been "componentized," letting you pick and choose services and protocol stacks as needed.
NT Embedded can run headless, that is, without a graphical user interface, and on "spindleless storage," such as flash memory, CD-ROM, and disk-on-chip systems. It can run on 486SX or more powerful processors with a minimum of 8 MB of RAM and 12 MB of ROM. Vince Mendillo, a Microsoft product manager, told DDJ that NT Embedded does not compete with Windows CE, which targets lower-end embedded applications such as cell-phones, PDAs, and other devices running with as little as 40 KB of RAM and 256 KB of storage.