Researchers at
Microsoft and UCSD created a network adapter dubbed Somniloquy
(meaning to talk in one’s sleep) that can process network traffic autonomously,
allowing a computer’s CPU, hard disk, display, and I/O buses to be powered down without
losing connectivity.
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As Bruce
Maggs, VP of research at Akamai, points out in the story, energy-aware
routing will only work if hardware uses significantly less power when idle. After
we spoke, he sent me a link to the Somniloquy research project noting that it could help make existing hardware more power efficient.
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The Microsoft-UCSD network interface (described
in this
paper) could take over many network-related tasks like bit torrent file-sharing, and managing
a remote desktop connection and a VOIP account, allowing the connected machine
to enter sleep mode without losing its network link.
The
adapter consists of a gumstix module with
a 200 MHz XScale processor, 64 MB of RAM, and a 2-GB SD memory card running embedded
Linux. When the adapter detects that the connected machine has entered sleep
mode, it copies over networking information and carries out simple communications on
its behalf.
The
researchers also show that the adapter can perform more complex tasks for its host. For example, they created a
modified IM client capable of responding to network messages and waking the host computer when a proper message is received. They also developed a compact
bit torrent client that continues to download a file while the host is in
low-power mode.
It’s a
smart idea and I wouldn’t be surprised to see such features in future desktop and laptop computers, especially as energy use becomes an increasing concern.
