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Fingernail-sized web server could spread net wider

Picture of iPic, courtesy of UMass Press Office

The iPic web server could be used to connect all kinds of electrical devices to the internet

Imagine being able to check if you've left the oven on in your house from the other side of the world, and turn it off if you have. Thanks to a graduate student at an American university, the day when you may control every electrical device in your life with a web browser is a lot closer.

Hariharasubrahmanian Shrikumar has made a web server out of a single microchip the size of a fingernail. A web server is a combination of software and hardware that makes information accessible on the world wide web.

Shrikumar, who is known at the University of Massachusetts as "Shri", made the device out of a chip called a PIC. The PIC is about six millimetres square in size and costs roughly a dollar. The server, or iPic, uses a unique streamlined version of the TCP/IP software that is used to allow computers to pass information to each other over the web. Even though its software is less than half a kilobyte in size, the iPic is a fully functional web server that complies with international standards.

Traditionally, web servers have required microchips that are much larger, expensive and powerhungry than the iPic. This has prevented devices such as mobile phones from being easily connected to the internet. The tiny size and low power requirements of the iPic mean that it could conceivably be placed in any electrical device such as lights, alarm clocks or cameras. This means that all the electrical devices in your house would be able to communicate with each other, and could be controlled from a home computer.

As Shri explained, "At a dollar a piece... the iPic chip can be embedded in every appliance and every lamp socket in your house. These devices and appliances can all then be controlled from your web-browser. With a few mouseclicks you can navigate to the particular lamp on your patio or the time settings on your VCR." Whether it makes it any easier to program your VCR is another matter.

Shri built the iPic as a hobby project in his spare time from parts he purchased from an ordinary electronics store. The previous record for a small web server was held by Stanford University, who developed a server the size of a matchbox earlier this year.

Tags: information-technology