Posted on 03/19/2002 7:09:31 PM PST by aculeus
WASHINGTON: A young non-resident Indian has invented an low cost, aspirin-sized server which would allow devices to be Internet-enabled on a mass scale, media reports said here.
Young Hariharasubrahmaniam "Shri" Srikumar was working on his PhD when he thought of breaking a world record by creating the smallest computer server. Later Ipsil, a Greater Washington area company, was etablished to put the tiny server to work, the Washington Post reports.
Set up by Velu Sinha a longtime friend of Shrikumar's, and Jim Kopetsky, Ipsil began filing for patents and creating a prototype of the server to work with a variety of products.
"What I stumbled upon," says Srikumar "is a way by which you can shrink network computers by a factor of a thousand".
"We came up to a single chip design that would work to make all types of devices Internet-enabled," Sinha explained.
Sinha said Ipsil is targeting companies that will use the servers to remotely monitor products for needed adjustments or potential glitches. For example, the device could be attched to different parts of a car engine, so that if a problem is detected, the service station and owner would be notified and could prevent a breakdown.
The servers can run on existing wires or transmit data through wireless networks, so no direct Internet connection is needed, Sinha said.
Srikumar's design also dramatically reduced the cost of servers, making a mass application of them more feasible. The chips cost about five dollars each but Ipsil executives predict the price will eventually fall to less than a dollar.
Interesting find. Thanks for the information. So now I think I dislike Koba twice as much.
Democracy is slower and more chaotic than Communism, but I believe strongly that it is a nobler route than totalitarian and oppressive rule over one's people, coupled with murder and imprisonment if you question governmental policies (as in China).
India is better than Pakistan or China and certainly does have a great educational system. I should know, as half my family incluiding my father graduated from the I.I.T.s. It's also a potentially good place to retire, if you have the right connections. Other than than things in India look pretty grim. I was there last March so I know what I am writing about. 80,000 people visit FR. and if you don't know what you're writing about one of them will jump on you and flame your a--. So, be careful and think twice before you post.
Not my motive in mentioning it -- just info for the sake of info. Koba/Stalin isn't common knowledge (except in Russia), and I'd guess that FReeper koba was unaware of it.
There are 50,000 entries in the internet for the word "koba". It descrbies an Islamic city, an amplifier company, a maker of pottery, etc.
I was originally going to use the handle "Hannibal". but I didn't because I thought many visitors to FR would confuse my handle with the guy from "Silence of the Lambs" with the objectional dietary habits instead of the Carthiginian general. Oh well...
I think they got rid of one of the biggest problems when you left.
The chip in the picture above is a complete web-server. It is about the size of a mere match-head.
The single chip computer in the above picture runs the iPic web-server, the world's tiniest implementation of a TCP/IP stack and a HTTP web-server. The chip above is a complete micro-computer, and it includes all components of a complete computer on a single tiny micro-chip (this includes the CPU (central processing unit), memory, serial port interface circuitry, and clock oscillator).
The chip is connected directly to an Internet router, which is essentially the same as an Internet connection from an ISP. When you visit the iPic Web-server, by clicking on this demonstration link, (or this mirror), your web-browser connects to the chip shown in these photographs and the web-pages you see are sent to your web-browser directly from the tiny chip.
All the web-pages you can access from this on-line iPic demonstration link are served directly from the iPic match-head web-server. This includes all the text and HTML file, pictures, java applets and midi files.
The iPic demo server is connected by a serial link, which is currently experiencing a load upto its full design capacity.
Note: 1 Sep 1999: The iPic web-server is currently off-line, it will be back shortly. Meantime, please visit the mirror site below.
During the times when the iPic server is inaccesible, please try this mirror link, the file contents in the mirror are identical to that on the iPic chip. (The mirror is on a regular web-server).
Please bookmark or pass-on the URL shown below
The URL given in the cnn.com story is incorrect. That link should be corrected as below.
Thank you for visiting!
Maybe richer! After all he really invented something. Unlike Wm. Gates III who "borrowed" every piece of technology he sells.
Well, apparently what he did was write a really small program for a standard PIC microcontroller that implements a minimally acceptable TCP/IP stack, webserver & telnet. So he wrote a gem of a concise program, but it was all software. It's not like he designed a chip or something.
I hope there was enough space left over on the PIC for his copyright statement! :-)
For my next project, I'm going to work on shrinking my name.
The answer to that is socialism and a caste system,which creates a double layer of bureaucracy designed to "keep people in their place."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.