Linked by Jim Kirkley on Thu 12th Jun 2003 02:18 UTC
Back on June 9 2003, OSNews posted an article by Joshua Boyles entitled "The Edge Computing System". In that article Joshua lays out his vision, "of a new and very unique computing system". In this new article, an attempt will be made to further build on Jonathan's ideas through what can be termed, "Open Peripheral Hardware Connectivity".
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With the power of electronic technology, it makes really no sense to think in terms of Central Processors managing remote peripherals. Move the smarts close to the device! Devices should have sufficient processing power to not only perform their basic function, but should also be situationally aware so that they can update themselves and adapt to changing conditions. For example, devices should be able to phone home to their manufacturer's web site and see if they need a driver update. They should be able to operate over multiple wire protocols (USB, Firewire, whatever) and negotiate their service delivery with other consumer devices. Let's make hardware services more autonomic and dump the 'peripheral' term completely. That term exposes a CPU-bigoted mindset, to a printer, the act of printing is not peripheral at all, it is its reason to exist.
I am encouraged that this is happening. The costs of support far outweigh the costs of manufacturing and sales for many high-tech products. It just makes sense to enable these devices to manage themselves and learn to adapt.