Subject:   World's Smallest Web Server Fits In A Shirt Pocket

   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 Palm Pilot^Y, 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.



   ###

   Related material:

   Matchbox web server -- http://wearables.stanford.eduer/course.htmtext/1999/feb/04/020400427.h

   Background on Thumbcode -- http://boole.stanford.edu/thumbcoderse.htmtext/1999/feb/04/020400427.h



   Editor's Note: The original news release can be found at
   http://www.stanford.edu/dept/news/release/990208matchboxcompu.html27.h

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