EECS Research into the Post-PC Era David Culler U.C. Berkeley Feb 25,

2/25/99darpa visit2 Natural Tides of Innovation Time Integration Innovation Log R Mainframe Minicomputer Personal Computer Workstation Server 2/99

2/25/99darpa visit3 Exciting components

2/25/99darpa visit4 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 -> mini –mini -> workstation -> PC –PC -> ??? 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?

2/25/99darpa visit5 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 Laptops, Desktops Devices

2/25/99darpa visit6 Imagine You walk into a room You have complete, secure, optimized access to local devices and your private resources Your PDA connects to the local infrastructure and asks it to build a custom GUI Next, your PDA asks the infrastructure for a path out to your personal information space, where agents are processing your , v-mail, faxes, and pages

2/25/99darpa visit7 Internet-Scale Systems Perspective ~10 Billion of Information Appliances ~100 Million of Stationary Computers ~Million Scalable Servers

2/25/99darpa visit8 Complement to industry 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 –it’s the approach, not the technical superiority Need to develop foundations for next generation

2/25/99darpa visit9 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

2/25/99darpa visit10 Building the Bazaar What we need is not just a new research project, but a new “computing culture” => 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 => “ask a good question and get yours” seminar

2/25/99darpa visit11 Fall’98 Project Excerpts E-Commerce and Security –Pay-Per-Use Services on the Palm Computing Platform (Mike Chen, Andrew Geweke) –Secure 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

2/25/99darpa visit12 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 => 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 => need complete distributed system debugging and simulation environment

2/25/99darpa visit13 Momentum Building Deploy postPC infrastructure throughout building Millennium provides large-scale testbed Ninja architecture allows developers to “Push Services into the Infrastructure” Gigabit Ethernet PDAs Cell Phones Future Devices Wireless Infrastructure Desktop PCs Servers Clusters Massive Cluster

2/25/99darpa visit14 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

2/25/99darpa visit15 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 It’s not just what we build, but how we use it