Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Network Adapter Keeps Talking While a PC Is Asleep

Posted by timothy on from the would-make-me-feel-better-about-keeping-a-server-on dept.

Al writes "Researchers at Microsoft and the University of California, San Diego have developed a network adapter that lets a computer enter sleep mode without disrupting the network connection. The adapter, dubbed Somniloquy (meaning to talk in one's sleep), consists of a gumstix running embedded Linux, 64MB of RAM and a 2G SD memory card, connected via USB. The adapter keeps the network connection going and the researchers have also developed a simplified IM client and bittorrent client that carry out more complicated tasks autonomously, only waking the computer if, for example, an actualy IM is received or a download is completed."

33 of 188 comments (clear)

  1. So in other words... by Darkness404 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So in other words you still have a computer running, just not your main computer.

    --
    Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
    1. Re:So in other words... by Shakrai · · Score: 2, Funny

      So in other words you still have a computer running, just not your main computer.

      How's it gonna help those of us that download more than 2 gigabytes of porn^Wlinux distros at a time?

      --
      I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
      We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
    2. Re:So in other words... by SatanicPuppy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      One of the reasons I don't turn off my office computer at night is because, if some pathetic script kiddie walks on water all the way through thousands of hours of preventative labour and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of top tier hardware all the way down to my desktop windows PC, I want to see it first thing, so I won't have had my coffee before I stab myself through the eyeball with a ballpoint.

      Seriously? You think you're safer by having it off 16 hours a day? Moreover, your tech people think that it's acceptable to have an environment where the security precaution is to turn off your computer when you're not using it?

      Wow. Just...Wow...

      --
      ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
    3. Re:So in other words... by tepples · · Score: 4, Insightful

      How's it gonna help those of us that download more than 2 gigabytes of porn^Wlinux distros at a time?

      Wake the host PC after each GB and flush the buffer.

    4. Re:So in other words... by Dogtanian · · Score: 4, Funny

      You think you're safer by having it off 16 hours a day?

      Dude, if I was having it off for 16 hours a day, I wouldn't give a flying **** about some shitty PC security!

      --
      "Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
    5. Re:So in other words... by Luke+has+no+name · · Score: 2, Informative

      But it IS safer to have your computer off than on.

      Moreover, your tech people think that it's acceptable to have an environment where the security precaution is to turn off your computer when you're not using it?

      If it is THE precaution, then it would be bad. Having it as A precaution, if you don't have a strong firewall/gateway, isn't bad.

    6. Re:So in other words... by noidentity · · Score: 2, Funny

      So in other words you still have a computer running, just not your main computer.

      Don't worry, they're working on a solution which allows the network computer to go to sleep as well without disrupting the network connection. Perhaps they could add a second network computer that allows the first to power down...

    7. Re:So in other words... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      I don't think that's the kind of buffer Shakrai is interested in flushing

    8. Re:So in other words... by The_mad_linguist · · Score: 2, Funny

      'sup dawg, I heard you like computers, so I put a computer in your computer so you can download while you sleep.

    9. Re:So in other words... by dave562 · · Score: 3, Informative
      -you- might have not gotten a virus, but I'm sure I'm safe to say that you know a heck of a lot more about computers than the average employee using a computer. Most of them just need a "click here and run the program to see a cute kitten" and they will install a trojan willingly.

      I think it's time to put this one to rest. In any sort of corporate environment where "employees" are using computers, there should be multiple layers of defense to eat the 'click here to see the kitten' program before it makes it to the desktop. Between anti-virus on the email server, content filters and the like on the perimeter and anti-virus on the desktop, it should be next to impossible for an employee to get a virus.

      I'll be the first to admit that having to have those various levels of security is pretty insane, but it is what it is. Where I work we use Websense to filter malicious content from the web. We route our email through Postini (Google) first and then scan it on the Exchange server before it gets delivered to the users' mailboxes. Then we're running AV on the desktop and Firefox as the default browser (with AdBlock) to pick up whatever Websense doesn't filter. It sucks to have to run the network that way, but it has kept infections down to zero so far this year. One of the pluses is that the users are starting to run Firefox at home because they appreciate the lack of ads at work.

    10. Re:So in other words... by Locutus · · Score: 2, Interesting

      much like the OLPC design for their mesh networking. Another cool thing they, the OLPC people, was to let the CPU sleep but the video card keeps displaying what's on the screen.

      LoB

      --
      "Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
  2. Yo Dawg by decipher_saint · · Score: 4, Funny

    We put a computer on your computer so you can download while you download...

    --
    crazy dynamite monkey
    1. Re:Yo Dawg by Brian+Gordon · · Score: 4, Funny

      The question is whether the NIC can go into a power saving mode and be awoken by an even simpler device when a packet comes in.

    2. Re:Yo Dawg by ichthus · · Score: 2, Informative

      I use Wake On Lan to wake my PC. The same thing should work for this.

      --
      sig: sauer
    3. Re:Yo Dawg by tepples · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I use Wake On Lan to wake my PC. The same thing should work for this.

      Some applications, such as BitTorrent, require a continuous stream of packets. If you can offload processing these packets to another device that draws less electric power and keep the PC turned off until the device is ready to commit its changes, you can save money on your electric bill.

    4. Re:Yo Dawg by KibibyteBrain · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Still, the issue remains, why not just have two computers, a gumstix based box that runs bittorrent 24/7 and forwards the data to a cifs share on the windows box, and then a windows box that is set to sleep when idle but WOL? I see no benefit in tying the low power headless machine to your other computer. I essentially do this now, running my 24/7 tasks on an Atom based desktop and then sleeping my workstation when im not sitting in front of it. I also run my IM client on the remote host too, so the only benefit of their system over mine is they have an API that wakes the host machine on certain events, which I could implement if I really wanted that functionality.

  3. Slashdot editor's demonstrate..... by jdb2 · · Score: 5, Informative

    .....their incompetency once again.

    Apparently Timothy doesn't understand how to use Google, or, dare I say, even the Slashdot "Old Stories" search

    Almost the exact same story was posted on Monday, April 27 .

    jdb2

    1. Re:Slashdot editor's demonstrate..... by MilesTails · · Score: 3, Funny

      Well you are on about a par with us.for correcting someone's grammar. P.S You are missing a double quotation mark.

    2. Re:Slashdot editor's demonstrate..... by Desler · · Score: 3, Funny

      Posting dupes of 4 month old stories is the Slashdot way!

    3. Re:Slashdot editor's demonstrate..... by corbettw · · Score: 3, Funny

      Now if only they could come up with a NIC card that could do that when the editors are asleep.

      --
      God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
  4. Microsoft using Linux? by markdavis · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Researchers at Microsoft"..."have developed"..."running embedded Linux"

    Um, was that a misprint or did hell just freeze over? Hasn't MS referred to Linux as a "virus", a "cancer", "un-American", a "patent violator", and "communistic"?

    1. Re:Microsoft using Linux? by nycguy · · Score: 4, Funny

      Will be researchers formerly at Microsoft "running with an embedded chair" after tomorrow I'm sure...

    2. Re:Microsoft using Linux? by AndrewNeo · · Score: 2, Funny

      If only this hadn't been posted in April their jobs could have been saved!

    3. Re:Microsoft using Linux? by qw0ntum · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Apparently not.

      Who would have thunk it, researchers at Microsoft getting the task done in the best way possible rather than being dogmatic.

      Sheesh. Get over the FUD.

      --
      'Every story, if continued long enough, ends in death.' --Ernest Hemingway
    4. Re:Microsoft using Linux? by bmajik · · Score: 4, Informative

      if the work came out of MSR, they have a very high degree of platform & technology autonomy.

      MSR is basically academia, without classroom requirements. There are some product unit partnership projects where obviously a focus on shipping/evolutionary MS platforms or technologies make sense for the problem domain, but more abstract problems are often solved entirely with non-MS tools.

      --
      My opinions are my own, and do not necessarily represent those of my employer.
    5. Re:Microsoft using Linux? by SatanicPuppy · · Score: 4, Informative

      Both of you need to chill. Embedded linux is practically the standard for networking and routing devices...If they'd used anything else it would have been weird and worth of comment.

      Using something else would have been like having something other than an RJ45 port on it.

      --
      ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
  5. Awesome by Monkeedude1212 · · Score: 2, Funny

    only waking the computer if, for example, an actualy IM is received or a download is completed."

    So now if my falling asleep leads to the computer falling asleep, it'll wake up to wake me up when it finished downloading.

    It sounds like a dislexic "Yo Dawg..."

  6. Mainframe architecture revisted ... by golodh · · Score: 4, Interesting
    It's funny how today's PCs continue to take architectural queues from earlier mainframe and minicomputer designs.

    Remember when your IBM mainframe had an array of special I/O processors? Well, the bus arbitrator on your motherboard looks suspiciously like one of those. And remember when disk arrays because "smart"? Well ... just looks at the electronics on the average SATA IDE drive and you'll see what I mean. It manages the hardware, and you only talk to the drive's on-board controller, never to the drive itself.

    And now this network controller. Pardon me, I mean network card.

  7. Research? This is already a product by xianthax · · Score: 2, Interesting

    NIC's with on board processors and off load for these types of applications have been on the market for several years.

    http://www.bigfootnetworks.com/products/

    I think the only difference here is the operation while sleeping which could easily be done with a killer nic with firmware/driver changes

  8. Re:So much for... by Abreu · · Score: 2

    Download's not dead which can eternal lie.
    And with strange torrents even NICs may die.

    --
    No sig for the moment.
  9. How about security? by bughunter · · Score: 2, Insightful

    My first thought was "IMs? What about malware, etc?" In other words, a firewall on an embedded system in the NIC would be far more useful than something that lets your CPU sleep while you keep downloading porn.

    And then my second thought was "Great, another vulnerability for attack. Why hack someone's PC, which could have any configuration, when you can hack the monoculture of embedded processors in consumer NICs?"

    Either way, marketing this kind of NIC without addressing all of its security potentials/weaknesses would be hasty... and possibly even irresponsible.

    --
    I can see the fnords!
  10. Is it just me? by SuseLover · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Is this scary technology? Now your system can become a true zombie on a botnet while asleep. Couldn't a virus/worm just wake your system up and infect it?

  11. When decent switches are hard to find by tepples · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Why run on battery when decent switches (used by banks...) have PoE available?

    Because the switches and switch-router-NAT appliances marketed for use in homes or small businesses often aren't "decent switches", and because PoWLAN isn't yet available.