Sign in / up

back to article Boffins dream up Sleeptalking PC standby-mode tech

Computer boffins at Microsoft Research and UC San Diego have proposed the introduction of "sleep talking" technology, allowing PCs to carry out network tasks such as BitTorrent downloads or VoIP/IM listening while in energy-saving standby mode. The prototype gumstix-based Somniloquy "sleep talking" network interface Sniffs …

COMMENTS

House rules Send corrections
This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Peter D'Hoye
    Thumb Up

    How about a NAS or a SFF PC?

    Whenever I need to keep anything running for transfering files (hosting or receiving), I just keep my small NAS online. Low-power and does the job (runs linux too). Can SSH into it, WOL the PC remotely,... If not a NAS, one could always get one of those tiny computers Like SlimFit or NSLU...

    0 0
  2. Tony Barnes

    Nice

    I for one hate paying the leccy bill thanks to my laptop being on 24/7, this would be a nice tool for me - though only if it's cheaper than the extra bill!

    0 0
  3. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Plug into someone else connection

    Sounds fun. If you could plug into someone elses connection. And leave it seeding torrents. Give it some SSH or a torrent webUI. And all will be dandy

    0 0
  4. Andy Morrell

    NAS and this tech

    I would love to see this in a smart NAS style design.

    NAS is all well and good but again these are left on just waiting for someone to access. if we could has a WOL NAS box which switches off again once no network traffic is detected i would by it and it would of course save on the old leccy bills,

    0 0
  5. Dave
    Paris Hilton

    boffins?

    not sure I'd use the word boffin on someone that just "dreamt up" the Windows Vista sideshow, a device which has been around for several years, and on the market too!

    Well done lads. What's next, inventing a device with rows of buttons for text input?

    0 0
  6. Simon B
    Thumb Up

    Good idea!

    Simple but a good idea! Nice :)

    0 0
  7. Joe K

    Or

    You don't even need a NAS, some USB hard drives can be reflashed to do this, Western Digital drives and media players are the current fave: http://mybookworld.wikidot.com/hacks-and-howto

    The fantastic little WD HDTV player, combined with a USB drive, and flashed with custom firmware to open up its linux core becomes a fearsome ultra-low power always-on computer and torrent box.

    0 0
  8. Martin
    Thumb Up

    Media Players

    The PopcornHour media player does torrent and usenet troughing out of the box.

    (don't have the power ratings to hand though).

    0 0
  9. Sarev

    Check out OpenWRT

    You can put linux on your wireless router (or the like) using OpenWRT and run that sort of thing on it, especially if you attach a USB hard drive or SD card reader.

    0 0
  10. Ramazan
    Happy

    @Joe K

    http://mybookworld.wikidot.com/more_about_c&c/ ? If the MBWE requires tweaking to reduce heat/noise, then it's not relevant to this article's topic.

    IMHO any ARM CPU (consuming lt 1Wt BTW) with decent amount of DRAM, some boot flash/ROM, USB host controller and Linux will do the job. And of course, it won't have no stinkin' WD drive connected to the mentioned USB controller when doing this, ever.

    0 0

  11. This post has been deleted by its author

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    @NAS

    How about a mobile phone? I use my old WM5 smartphone for overnight downloads (...of Linux Distros...) and stick the files onto a storage card. It takes approximately bugger all power (especially as it uses a few old solar chargers for most of its power), downloads as fast as anything else can over 802.11 and can store huge amounts of data to SD-card. It could also save off to a portable hard drive if it had USB-Host facilities, or off to a Bluetooth storage device.

    Plus it's connected to Skype and my work / home email addresses.

    It also used to control my coffee maker, but that's not realy related to the article.

    0 0
This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like