Ninja and the Post-PC Era

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Ninja and the Post-PC Era

• David Culler
• U.C. Berkeley
• Mar 12, 1999

http//ninja.cs.berkeley.edu http//postPC.cs.berk
eley.edu
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Natural Tides of Innovation
Innovation
??
Integration
Personal Computer Workstation Server
Log R
Minicomputer
Mainframe
2/99
Time
3
Exciting components
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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 ever 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.
• Technology spread increases
• So where are we headed in the post-PC era?

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Away from the average device

• Powerful, personal capabilities from specialized
  devices
• small, highly mobile or embedded in the
  environment
• Intelligence immense storage and processing in
  the infrastructure
• Everything connected

Devices
Laptops, Desktops
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Imagine

• You walk into a room

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Structured Architecture
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Service Execution Environment
operator upload
Service request
service threads
Persistent Storage
Managed RMI
Physical processor
Operators
Caches

• parallel application framework on Bases
• RMI hides complexity of scalability and
  availability
• Dynamic customization and composition
• apSpace is limited execution environment for AR

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Base Execution Environment

• Ninja RMI
• Sun RMI compatible serialization and thread
  management
• ninja remote object
• TCP or UDP or Multicast UDP (Active Msg soon)
• Authenticated public key
• iS-box
• customizable service VM
• Redirector
• iSpace

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iS-box

• Loader Extends JVM to support services
• LoadService (URL, name, args)
• ListServices
• GetService(name) -gt svc obj
• KillService
• Trusted services loaded at startup
• Security MGR interposes on method calls
• loaded as a trusted service

iS-Loader
Trusted-Services
Security MGR
JVM
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Push Services into the Infrastructure
New service
iS-Loader
Trusted-Services
Service Methods
RMI stubs
Security MGR
JVM
Generated by RMI compiler

• GetService returns service object
• Programming Model for Service Methods?

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Scalable iSpace

• Multi-Space services across group of iS-boxes
• List, Get, or Load Service from any
• Get returns redirector stub

iS-Loader
Multi-Space Loader
Multi-Space SVC
Security MGR
JVM
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Redirector Stub

• Uses almost same RMI dynamic code generation
• Produces RMI stub that manages load balancing and
  fail-over across iS-boxes in iSpace
• Allows full spectrum of smart-client, front-end,
  flat cluster

Load Balance / Fail-over Policy
RMI stubs
Generated by RMI compiler
Distributed Objects - not just remote
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Existing Applications

• Ninja "NOW Jukebox"
• Harnesses Berkeley Network of Workstations
• Plays real-time MPEG-3 audio served from 110
  CD's worth of music
• Voice-enabled room control
• Speech-to-text Operators control room services
  (camera, lights, microphone)
• Eventual integration with GSM cell phones and
  PDA-based UI
• Stock Trading Service
• Accesses real-time stock data from Internet
• Programmatic interface to buy/sell/trade stocks
  through online brokerage
• NinjaFAX
• Programmable remotely-accessed FAX machine
  service
• Send/receive FAXes authentication used for
  access control
• Keiretsu The Ninja Pager Service
• Provides instant messaging service via Web,
  1/2-way pagers, WorkPads, etc.

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Future Applications

• Universal Inbox
• e-mail, FAX, pager, voicemail accessible anywhere
• Universal Remote
• multiple-UI control of household/room devices
• automatic UI generation
• Ecash Mint
• Authenticated service to act as digital secure
  cash mint

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Complements industry PostPC efforts

• Get maximum number of applications first
• 1990 PC capality in handheld device
• microkernel port of Unix or Windows
• emulate vast API
• Turn devices into appliances
• Mobile extension of dedicated PC
• take short excursion and synch
• Success of the Palm Pilot with primitive OS and
  split application model is significant
• its the approach, not the technical superiority
• Need to develop foundations for next generation

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Seeds sewn in many projects

• Devices - Infopad, IRAM
• Scalable Servers - NOW, Millennium
• Storage - Tertiary Disk, Istore, Aetherstore
• Sensors and Actuators - BSAC
• Connectivity - BWRC
• Transcoding Services - Wingman, Mediaboard
• Platform Architecture - Ninja
• Computing/Telephony Integration - Iceberg
• Programming Enviornments and Tools
• User interfaces - Notepals

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Building the Bazaar

• What we need is not just a new research project,
  but a new computing culture
• gt Build a department-wide, universal wireless
  PDA infrastructure and a community to take it
  forward
• Initial Seed Fall 98 with IBM
• 150 IBM workpads lots of cradles IR ???
• Initial community
• Ninja, ICEBERG, MASH grad students
• Senior UI Class (CS 160)
• All interested 1st year CS grads (CS 252, 261,
  262 projects)
• Fill out based on interest, talent and
  availability
• gt ask a good question and get yours seminar

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Fall98 Project Excerpts

• 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
• Excellent UI Projects
• Ink Chat, Nutrition/Excercise Tracker, Rendezvous
  - Meeting Scheduler

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Some Lessons

• Communication is enabling
• low-power wireless needs to be like IP
• Virtual Environment is important
• Devices connect into the infrastructure
• Network HotSync, groupware, centralized e-mail
• gt Need lean, clean communication substrate
• User Service is fundamental
• not just profile and customization info
• routing point for security
• Much room for improvement in devices
• trade BW for compute or storage
• Development effort is the limiting factor
• OSKI 1 person for infrastructure, 2 for WorkPad
• gt need complete distributed system debugging and
  simulation environment

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Momentum Building

• Deploy postPC infrastructure throughout building
• Millennium provides large-scale testbed
• Ninja architecture allows developers to Push
  Services into the Infrastructure

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Oceanic Vision fluid software

• devices everywhere
• backed by massive, fluid data storage and
  composible services
• operating systems for vastly diverse devices
• down to sensors and actuators
• streaming data management
• data derived from sensors and activities, not key
  entry
• incremental query
• automated negotiation architecture
• derive organization from activities
• social networking
• computational economies

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Roles, Collaboration, and Environment

• Bold, Rich PostPC Agenda Emerging
• New balance of expertise and technology between
  industry and university
• devices, components, networks, applications,
  users
• New roles and relationships in collaboration
• how do we share space, environment, culture, not
  just technology
• Fundamentally new demands on the research space
• ability to deploy smart spaces on a large scale
• experimental wireless networking
• new modes of human interaction
• Its not just what we build, but how we use it