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The Net-centric View
 By
"net-centric computing" Bernard Cole means connected computing. In the future
computers will only be thought of in the context of their ubiquitous
connectivity. Net-centric computing isn't communications or networking per se,
although it certainly includes both. It encompasses the various traditional
segmentations in the market -- embedded, server, routers, switches, desktop, and
handheld -- but is is much larger in scope. It also encompasses the middleware
and Web infrastructure connecting these previously separate segments.
Copyright ©
Bernard C. Cole
Is mobile TV ready for
prime time?
(01/15/10, 8:15 AM
GMT)
If the wide variety of new
consumer devices supporting Mobile DTV introduced at the Consumer Electronics
Show, 2010 could be the year of mobile TV, running on everything: smartbooks,
smartphones, mobile DTVs, USB receivers, and WiFi access products.
Cloud computing - Return
of the Fat Client?
(03/9/09, 2:00 AM GMT)
If Nickolas Carr is right, the
fat - and resource loaded - server and much thinner mobile and desktop clients
may be coming back with the emergence of what is called “cloud computing.”
Multicores, software tools, languages and the
Charge of the Light Brigade
(08/15/07, 1:54 AM GMT)
Lacking appropriate software tools and programming
languages, developers of the multicore-based connected electronics devices face
a tough road ahead.
iPhones, iPods and David
Norman's Invisible Computer
(07/14/07, 1:54 AM GMT)
I don’t think the long term future of the
much-hyped iPhone will ever match that of Apple’s iPod or even the Macintosh,
despite the spectacular early sales, the great expectations of the company and
its investors, and the enthusiasm of a small group of early adopters and iPod
groupies.
P2P, embedded
sensors and deterministic wireless nets
(06/17/07, 1:54 AM GMT)
In embedded systems, P2P is getting a lot of
attention as a means to allow servers, blade computers and telecom boards to
share information and resources. It is also being considered as a way for
wirelessly connected MCUs and sensors to do the same.
"Converged" wireless media devices in search of the
mainstream
04/10/07, 00:3:00 AM GMT
It's how personal they are rather than the
technology behind them that will define the new wireless multimedia devices and
platforms and establish just how "converged" they become.
Virtual Machines,
Cell's "apulets" and the future of connected computing
02/21/07, 1:54 AM GMT
I recently read a story describing Datdevices’
Dartplayer software as a way to deal with the lack of interoperability among
net-centric connected devices. The story got me thinking about “write once, run
anywhere” software virtual machines and their future.
01/23/07, 1:54 AM GMT
CE device designers face traffic jams on the
multimedia chips in their systems as severe as those Steve Martin dealt with
getting to work in the morning freeway traffic rush.
(10/31/06, 12:00:00 PM GMT)
As we plunge headlong into the future of ubiquitously connected
wired and wireless mobile TV appliances, we can't make the same
assumptions as we have in the past about the nature of the ultimate killer app
on this new platform.
Sun’s SPOT, Squawk and
wirelessly connected sensor devices
(05/22/06, 1:54 AM GMT)
Sun’s Small Programmable
Object Technology (SPOT) effort could have a profound influence on the way
developers build and deploy Java and other virtual machines in resource constrained
wireless sensor and controller environments.
A skeptical view of wireless
multimedia
(07/13/06, 8:30:00 AM GMT)
Wireless multimedia, which
studies indicate will have at least 20 to 80 million users by the end of the
decade, still has technology and end user unknowns that require maintaining a
skeptical attitude.
(07/10/05, 12:54:52 PM GMT)
The impact of ubiquitous
wired and wireless connectivity on embedded MCUs and how to secure them is
complex with many questions still to be answered.
(11/26/04, 03:10:52 PM GMT)
Does the special nature of wired and
wireless network connected
microcontroller/server interactions require that the industry consider
acquiring an embedded TLD?
(08/30/04, 09:46:52 AM GMT)
Technology evolution
in mobile appliance development is like water: it will always follow the paths
of least resistance. The trick is to know the terrain and find out what specific
paths it will follow as it flows to its ultimate destination.
Universal Serial Bus: the ubiquitous
tool
(03/29/04, 18:00:00 PM GMT)
The USB standard is a good
example of a technological tool or building block designed originally for a very
narrow set of applications but because of market dynamics, such as the World
Wide Web and Internet, have been re-engineered, adapted and redefined to meet
the new requirements.
(01/05/04, 6:00:00 PM GMT)
As mobile computing and
communications devices proliferate and get smaller, the security and user
inconvenience issues resulting when they are lost are stolen get more serious.
If mechanisms and systems for finding lost wireless mobile and consumer
electronic iappliances are not developed, the
growth of the market will be seriously impaired.
(09/21/03, 3:00:00 PM GMT)
As we push semiconductor
technology based on binary logic to its limits, the degree of difficulty and the
expense will increase exponentially. Isn't it time to reach into the same waste
bag of history from which other new old ideas such as nonvolatile RAMs, Silicon
Germanium and silicon on insulator were retrieved and take another look
multi-valued logic?
SCO, Linux and the goose with golden
eggs
(08/16/03, 09:46:52 AM GMT)
No matter how legally
justified the companies, such as SCO, in taking action against companies
using software and hardware tools, such as Linux, that were presumed to be open
source and clear of legal entanglements, it is shortsighted. They focus on
short-term tactical gains without looking at threat to not only their, but the
industry's long-term strategic goals.
SUVs,
embedded systems and connected appliance devices
(05/23/03, 13:48:29 PM EDT)
As the embedded market seeks to regain its
footing and its focus in the age of connected computing, they should look to the
truck industry and the emergence of suburban utility vehicles and how proper
naming allowed the emergence of a vital new market segment.
"Converged" appliances: in search of the mainstream
(03/24/03, 3:09:54 PM GMT)
Despite the frenzy of development of next
generation
"converged platforms"
combining elements of camera, cell phone, gaming device, music player and PDA
into a single unit with several dollops of WLAN via Bluetooth, IrDA, and 802.11,
there is no certainty that a standard platform will emerge.
Time to
Change OEM channels?
(01/16/03, 10:54:18 AM GMT)
With nearly ubiquitous connectivity,
what are embedded
hardware/software tool companies, or for that matter, the system developers who
depend on them, to do when the marketplace starts changing OEM channels in
mid-broadcast?
(11/08/02, 4:56:54 PM GMT)
Out of the turmoil of the new connected
computing marketplace, the embedded device
industry is abuzz
about "platformization" -- the development of a common software development
platform, application programming interfaces, and languages.
(10/23/02, 10:10:52 AM GMT)
Apple Newton is an example of a "successful
failure," an idea ahead of its time which in the new connected computing
environment has come to dominate in the form of diverse Internet-centric
personal computing and communications appliances: PDAs, handheld computers,
Web-enabled cell phones, and many variations on the theme.
(09/13/02, 05:15:52 PM GMT)
Driven by the tough high performance, but low
power requirements of mobile computing and communications devices, developers
are taking another look, albeit cautiously, at asynchronous logic in very
targeted, specific ways, keeping in mind its limitations.
(08/23/02, 03:10:52 PM GMT)
Like the proverbial reaction of a bull to a red
flag, the mere mention of asynchronous logic design prods engineers into heated
debate, despite the need in the new connected computing mobile environment for a
better device design methodology.
(07/30/02, 05:10:52 AM GMT)
Since the revelation in recent weeks in the al Qaeda has been planning attacks
on the "information superhighway," some of you have expressed concern about the
outdated nature of the security models we use in the connected computng
environment.
(07/12/02, 08:10:52 AM GMT)
Rather than attack our information superstructure itself, the second shoe that
the al Qaeda has been trying to drop is to use our connected computing
environment as the conduit by which to penetrate the many networked
infrastructure facilities: water facilities; gas, oil and water distribution
systems; electric power distribution systems, conventional and nuclear power
plants or municipal waste processing systems.
(06/26/02, 12:10:52 PM GMT)
In the new connected computing environment,
we still have problems defining and naming precisely what it is we are building
and using. Why not look to history for a solution? Name the devices after those
who had a role in creating this new world. Or go back to the old client/server
terminology.
(06/13/02, 02:10:52 PM GMT)
In the connected computing environment in
which handheld mobile devices have become the mainstream platform, the PC is not
going away. It is evolving into a new personal and home platform, a personal or
home media center which will be the nexus of all computing and communications
activities.
(05/27/02, 6:10:52 P GMT)
Even before Sept. 11, Microsoft had a tough job proving that it had enough
security safeguards built into its ambitious .NET web services framework. Now it
is faced with an unsettling reality: it had better get it right the first time.
(05/14/02, 01:10:52 AM GMT)
Never before have chip designers had as many choices on how to reduce power
consumption and dissipation in the variety of new mobile, Internet-centric
connected appliance designs. But never has there been as much need.
(03/03/02, 05:10:52 AM GMT)
Using proper terminology and correctly naming the
new Internet-centric mobile computing and communications appliances is an
important step in understanding how they will evolve in the future. Why? Because
language is thought, and if we use old language, we will think in old ways
(02/11/02, 10:03:52 AM GMT)
Peer-to-peer connectivity will have profound
effects on net-centric computing beyond allowing Web-enabled information
appliances and desktop personal computers to connect more or less directly with
one another to share files.
(01/17/02, 9:10:52 AM GMT)
In
the connected computing environment, the performance of any design, from
embedded to cell phone, depends not only on the capabilities of the local
hardware and software, but on the external Web resources on which it may rely.
(01/11/02, 4:10:52 PM GMT)
When
the question of Microsoft and the future of the embedded industry come up,
it is assumed that eventually Microsoft eventually dominate. Not so fast. The
situation isn't quite that clear cut.
(01/03/02, 03:14:50 AM GMT)
In the battle for the hearts and minds of
developers of small footprint control devices as well as information appliances
ranging from handheld devices to set top boxes, I'm still betting on the
traditional embedded RTOS and tool vendors.
(12/20/01, 07:10:52 AM GMT)
A carefully crafted industry-wide consensus on a
set of standards for Web Services that was in the process of fracturing is now
showing the first signs of true integration, or at least a quick repair job with
duct tape. New companies and tools are emerging that may provide a bridge
between the two environments.
(12/13/01, 06:40:52 AM GMT)
IBM has learned that it is not companies that
drive technology and the market, but the other way around. It understands that
"winning" depends on understanding the environment within which you operate and
taking advantage of what you have learned, rather than trying to make it change
to fit a particular set of needs or wants.
(12/06/01, 04:50:52 AM GMT)
With network processing is in turmoil as far as
defining the most appropriate languages, operating systems, and programming
methodologies, an essential factor that will bring stability is the emergence of
a common application-programming interface (API).
(11/29/01, 07:18:52 AM GMT)
The
continuing perturbations in the net-centric computing environment are evident in
the nature of the programming decisions that face developers, who are still
sorting out the complexities and opportunities that new languages such as Java
and C-sharp have introduced.
(11/19/01, 3:10:52 PM GMT)
A desktop computer for business and another for
the home will be useful accoutrements for a long time to come, but the hardware
and software architecture must undergo a radical change to survive.
(11/13/01, 03:10:52 AM GMT)
As network processors become commonplace in
switches and routers on the wide area network and within the Internet Data
Center, how will operating systems have to adapt and adjust to the new realities
of the "network as data-flow processor?"
(10/30/01, 01:10:52 PM GMT)
Within the Internet data center there is a shift
from traditional sequentially-based RISC architectures to the much more highly
parallelized network processors used in the data and control planes of the
switches and routers in the external WAN environment.
As computing shifts to a more network-connected
paradigm, similarities can be seen between the way software and hardware is
developed and how mechanisms in biological systems that evolve to ensure
survival can also lead to extinction when there is a rapid change in the
environment.
The emergence of the dataflow and other parallel
processor architectures into the mainstream of connected computing is apt to
present problems to programmers trained on the concurrency models and languages
used on the traditional sequential Von Neumann-based CPUs.
In the aftermath of Sept. 11, the concept of
active networks, in which data traffic on the "information superhighway" could
be re-routed dynamically in real time around massive blockages and damage
deserves serious consideration.
(09/27/01, 07:10:52 AM GMT)
The
terrorists have made a fundamental and ultimately self-defeating mistake of
monumental proportions, not just in attacking us in such a violent and deadly
way, but in their choice of specific targets and in the purpose of the attacks.
They have made the same mistake that those who attacked Pearl Harbor did 60
years ago.
(09/23/01, 09:10:52 AM GMT)
As
designs move from traditional deeply embedded systems with little or connection
to the outside world to open environments with some degree of cooperation
amongst devices, a number of new challenges are emerging.
(09/13/01, 03:30:52 PM GMT)
The
banishment of Java is just the latest in a series of efforts by Microsoft to
redefine the Internet and World Wide Web in its own image, as well as many
embedded and net-centric markets.
(08/21/01, 3:13:12 AM GMT)
Net-centricity is having a profound impact on the way programmers do things,
particularly in how to effectively debug and test remote systems in the
networking and data communications environment.
(08/09/01, 010:10:52 AM GMT)
In
the new rapidly changing connected computing environment virtually all of the
terminology used to describe events and things have been bent and mangled to
reflect particular viewpoints. But using old language to describe new phenomena
will doom us to thinking about the new in old terms.
(07/30/01, 03:15:32 AM GMT)
Formation of a new "embedded communications"
consortium between Arizona State University, Intel Corp. and Motorola Computer
Group, comes at a time when a number of serious engineering recruitment problems
are emerging which could hamstring efforts to move into connected computing
markets with significant new growth opportunities.
(07/19/01, 12:10:52 AM GMT)
Are terms such as "service computing," "web
service computing," or "service-based computing" will be much more appropriate
to the emerging Internet-centric connected computing environment?
(07/05/01, 3:10:52 PM GMT)
In response to my earlier column on the problems
we have naming and defining the emerging net-centric connected computing
alternatives, I have received a number of interesting alternatives. Not all
directly incorporate any reference to connectivity, but they raise issues about
which I think there needs to be some debate.
(06/21/01, 03:10:4 PM GMT)
If the average, non-technical consumer is to fully
accept and depend on the Internet, the World Wide Web, and the networked home,
these structures must achieve a level of reliability that is now only associated
with the physical infrastructure of the freeway system. This need could
fundamentally change how we view and use nonvolatile memory and logic
technology.
(06/19/01, 03:10:52 AM GMT)
It's too bad that Bill Gates dropped out of
college to become a billionaire. He might have learned from game theory that the
best competitive strategy is to be nice, or to do unto others as they do unto
you. If others are nice and play fair, do likewise. And if not, treat them
accordingly: reciprocity, as the social scientists say, or tit-for-tat, as
game theorists put it.
(06/07/01, 02:18:52 PM GMT)
Whether we like it or not, the net-centric
computing environment is much more open and systems designers must accept its
openness and deal with threats of network-introduced viruses. It is a cost of doing
business on the "information superhighway," and we must find new ways to cope.
(05/24/01, 09:11:52 AM GMT)
Maybe it's a good thing that several operating
systems besides Microsoft's, have found footholds in the net-centric computing
and communications market. Without such Balkanization, we could face the day
when security problems and holes could bring it crashing down around our ears.
(05/10/01, 03:14:52 PM GMT)
In this new connected computing market, names and
definitions are getting tossed around willy-nilly as we try to define how things
have changed and are continuing to change. I suppose this has something to do
with the nave assumption that by naming something, we have defined it,
understand it, and thus control it.
(05/03/01, 04:10:55 PM GMT)
Recently, in a column on the editorial pages of
the New York Times, Lawrence White, former chief economist at the
antitrust division of the Department of Justice, suggested a possible solution
to the impasse between the federal government and Microsoft Corp. -- charge the
company with a one-time $10 billion fine. Here are some ideas about what to do
with the money.
(04/19/01, 03:10:52 AM GMT)
This is the first part in an on-going column
looking at technology developments,
assessing their connections to one another, and determining their impact on the
market and each other, in a connected computing market that is still in a state
of chaos and searching for direction and stability.
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