UDP + Math = Fast File Transfers

Wolfger writes: "A new file transfer protocol talked about in EE Times gets data from one place to another without actually transmitting the data..." Well, the information is transmitted, just not in its original form. I think there are a couple of other places working on similar ideas - wasn't there a company using this for a fast file download application? User would go to download a game demo or something, receive pieces from several different places, and knit them together? Wish I could recall the company's name.

Comments

Re:Not a new concept

[KarmaBlackballed]

Have you ever spanned disks with a ZIP file? Think of each disk as containing a "packet" of compressed information.

If you are missing a disk, yes the decompression fails.

Nothing to see here. Move along.

Re:Not a new concept

[KarmaBlackballed]

Transporter Fountain creates not equations but hundreds of millions of "symbols" which can be used to reconstruct the data. The sending side transmits these symbols until the box on the receiving end confirms that it's collected enough symbols.

The power of this "press release" is that it fools readers like yourself into believing there is more there than the sum of the parts.

Read it dude. Think about it. Think huffman codes. Think fractal compression. Think run-length encoding. And yes, think disk spanning.

Don't be a j*erk. More important, don't be a pawn.

RAID

[KarmaBlackballed]

The concept of redundantly spreading information so you can construct the original from less than all the parts is the basis of RAID5. I first heard of RAID5 in the mid 80's. The point is that I see no new concepts at play here. Just the application of existing concepts to move files.

More power to them if they can do it right. Earth shattering innovation? Not at all.