Finally, a computer you
can wear . . .
BY DAVID F. SALISBURY
The incredible shrinking
computer is at it again.
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
PalmPilot™, 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."
“Put
this computer into your shirt pocket, hook it to a
wireless modem, and you could carry it around with
you,” says Computer Science Professor Vaughan Pratt,
who has squeezed enough hardware and software to operate
a web site into a device less than 1 3/4” high, 2
3/4” wide and 1/4” thick.
Courtesy
Vaughan Pratt
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. SR
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