ISRG and the PostPC Era

1
ISRG and the Post-PC Era

• David Culler
• U.C. Berkeley
• ISRG Retreat
• Jan, 1999.

2
Why is Internet-Scale Systems Research Concerned
with Small Post-PC Devices?
3
The Emerging Platform Pyramid
SuperComputers
SuperServers
100s
Departmental Servers
10Ks
Workstations
Workstations
lt Million
Personal Computers
100 millions
4
Future Internet-Scale Systems

• 10 Billion of Information Appliances
• 100 Million of Stationary Computers
• Million Scalable Servers

5
Natural Convergence

• Internet-Scale gt system reaches everywhere
• small devices will be what is wherever
• Small devices provide powerful services
• because the intelligence is in the infrastructure
• The breakthrough ahead is pervasive devices
  communication
• Services, adaptation, access, customization,
  simplicity, efficiency, ...

6
Seeds sewn in many projects

• Infopad, Wingman, Mediaboard, Notepals, ...
• Ninja - platform architecture
• powerful services on small devices through a
  powerful infrastructure
• Iceberg - integration of computing and telephony
• Notepals - new user interfaces
• IRAM - high performance multimedia at low power
• Aetherstore - the data is out there
• Demos around you...

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A Radical Experiment

• What we need is not a new research project
• It is a new computing culture

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Game Plan (Oct 1998)

• Build a department-wide, universal wireless PDA
  infrastructure
• Initial Seed 150 IBM workpads lots of cradles
  IR ???
• Running UI classes on them
• Bring in all interested 1st year CS grads
• Fill out based on interest, talent and
  availability
• next generation wider and better
• gt ask a good question and get yours seminar

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Fall98 Project Excerpts (see posters)

• E-Commerce and Security
• Pay-Per-Use Services on the Palm Computing
  Platform (Mike Chen, Andrew Geweke)
• Secure Email Infrastructure for PDAs (Hoon Kang,
  Rob von Behren)
• SyncAnywhere - Secure Network HotSync (Mike Chen,
  Helen Wang)
• Groupware
• Kiretsu - Ninja Instant Messaging Service (Matt
  Welsh, Steve Gribble)
• The MASH MediaPad - Shared Electronic Whiteboard
  for the PalmPilot (Yatin Chawathe)
• NotePals - Lightweight Meeting Support Using PDAs
  (Richard Davis)
• OSKI - Open Shared Kalendaring Infrastructure
  (Jason Hong, Brad Morrey, Mark Newman)
• OS and Communications
• PalmRouter - Networking Sporadically Connected
  Devices (Andras Ferencz, Robert Szewczyk)
• Numerous Architecture Studies
• CS160 UI Projects (see James Landay talk)
• Ink Chat, Nutrition/Excercise Tracker,
  Rendezvous - Meeting Scheduler

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Some Lessons

• Communication is enabling
• Virtual Environment really is a good thing
• Devices connect into the infrastructure
• Network HotSync, groupware, centralized e-mail
• gt Need lean, clean communication substrate
• Much room for improvement in devices
• Palm III (WorkPad) is too slow
• adaptation involves trading cycles for bandwidth
  and interoperability

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Lessons

• Development effort is the limiting factor
• OSKI 1 person for infrastructure, 2 for WorkPad
• Debugging is particularly hard
• gt need complete system simulation environment
• User Service is fundamental
• not just profile and customization info
• routing point for security
• Surprising similarities with the infrastructure
  problem

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Phase 2 Plan Real Users

• Deploy some real WorkPad services
• Secure e-mail
• Network HotSync
• Group Calendar
• Widespread use of at least one service
• more than 50 users?
• highly available/reliable

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Historical Perspective

• New eras of computing start when the previous era
  is so strong it is hard to imagine that things
  could be different
• mainframe -gt mini
• mini -gt workstation -gt PC
• PC -gt ???
• It is always smaller than what came before.
• Most think of the new technology as just a toy
• The new dominant use was almost completely absent
  before.
• So where are we headed in the post-PC era?