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Hard Drive
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A
standard hard drive should be used so that current technology can be
implemented. The local hard drive of the computer will be used primarily to
store the interface rendering information of the application screens. Each
application screen will have an ID associated as well as a version
timestamp (CRC) that is compared to the server’s version. The drive
probably does not need to be a large size.
Alternatively, a persistent
memory card could be used. A four or two gigabyte implementation may be sufficient. This will, in
the end, only allow greater flexibility in power usage and hardware design.
A
directory file naming schema needs to be maintained that compares the
versions of the rendering interface to the server’s version so that
cached versions are quickly located and displayed.
Typically
the hard drive uses much of the computer battery resources, so there could
actually be a version of the device that does not utilize a hard drive at
all.
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Keyboard
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The
keyboard is a standard QWERTY keyboard with internet enabled features for
easy browsing.
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RAM
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The
speed of the computer RAM can be significantly less than current technology.
The main internal CPU does not have to be extensive as the important
functionality will be the DMA processor. The instructions will be gathered by
the internet assembly engine from ROM or trusted memory write access chip (also
has anonymous read access). This will allow for an over reducing in cost of
the machine itself. Some elements of RAM will be set aside for other operating
components of the machine. Video memory, internet communication processor,
encryption and decryption, sound buffer management. It is hoped that a hardware
solution that solve various memory management functionalities of allocation.
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Mouse
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A standard
mouse should be available to the platform laptop. Either the touch pad
style or the detachable USB mouse style. It should be Internet
enabled in all of its facets. The best scrolling wheel most I have seen was
implemented on an Apple mouse.
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DMA Processor
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The DMA
processor will be a multi-channel DMA controller that allows independent
access to various parts of the RAM. As well it should be implemented as an
easily controlled device as many other processors on board will be utilizing
it.
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Intel Processor
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The
Intel processor being used will be the absolute minimum for the requirement
of the rendering code. I would guess that a Pentium III with low power
usage would suffice. But a new processor design that is specific to the rendering
operating system would also be applicable. The processor should be robust
enough to implement the rendering platform across multiple devices for ease
of implementation across hardware devices.
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BIOS
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The BIOS
will contain the latest routines that enable the computer to operate in a
shielded internet computer system. It should protect itself from viruses as
well.
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Video Processor
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The
video processor will be a main ingredient to the platform that smoothes the
interface rendering to a fine degree. It will provide video acceleration of
2d and 3D drawings and animations. It will contain a specialized processor with
font rendering capabilities in the 2d graphics realm and support vector based
graphics with anti-aliasing for clear lines.
As well,
since parts of the interactive experience will be CGI video playback a
specialized research project needs to be accomplished that determines the
likely hood of real-time CGI video over the web at sixty frames per second.
I propose that by abstracting light maps, gradients, and anti-aliasing
information from the stream and sending this information as a separate
package will enable the graphic portion of the image to be compressed with
a higher ratio. Then to facilitate sixty (FPS) frames per second, which is
the standard, a real-time frame change algorithm will need to be
implemented. This will have minimum 3D processing on board yet rely
on the host for most of the render. A complex engineering problem of
interaction of user interface devices.
Also, I
know there are current algorithms that use compression of the vertex and
index data for the triangular model data. So if a small model frame buffer were
utilized for 3D onboard graphics processing interactivity would be solid as
controlled locally. It may also be important to side step polygons and go
for a more smooth implementation using continuous NURB models so that the
descriptive data will be less.
It will
be difficult project yet the program development portion should not impede
developers who are currently trained in triangle transforms. It may be important
to offer these solutions as part of a gaming computer platform like adding Playstation mechanics as a secondary option.
The
video processor must also be adept in video compositing, stenciling, image resizing
(bicubic, bilinear, smart) ,
convolution filter matrix operations and advanced drawing commands such as smooth
gradients, compressed image display and video rendering of various formats
including mp4, jpeg, png, gif and tiff.
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Audio Processor
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The
Audio processor (DSP) will have mp3/mp4 capabilities and wav form playback
capabilities. Music on the internet is so wide spread that a hardware implementation
of a compressor, limiter, EQ and other audio features should be standard. It
should support the normalization of audio to a specific DB so that audio
never raises above a level that will damage ears. The
audio component should allow sampling and real time encoding of mp4 audio
using the compression processor for uploading and synchronization to the
server.
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Compression Processor
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A new
compression processor will be needed that operates as an independent object
on compression and decompression of memory sources. Supporting Huffman
compression, numeric compression, and real time audio uLaw
and mp4 encoding compression for sample upload.
I have
been impressed by the ratios of ZIP and their methodology of choosing good
compression techniques for the current dataset.
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Encryption Processor
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A
processor needs to be built so that packages received in the communication
pipeline can be efficiently decrypted and encrypted for the upload. Because
it will be a hardware resources the strength of
the cipher can be greater, so I am suggesting a bit oriented encryption
that does not increase in storage space.
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Internet Communication Processor
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A
processor needs to be added that performs the queuing of the high speed traffic
on the connection lines. Operating as a TCPIP stack operator.
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Device Identification Tag
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The
device identification tag will be used to identify the computer on the
internet as a unique device as well as being used in the encryption algorithms.
It will act as an anonymous serial number that is registered in the user’s Web server account. If the device is
stolen, this ID can be quickly taken out so that access to the user’s
data will be secure.
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Speakers
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For
multimedia use speakers, headphones and a microphone jack should be
available.
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Device Drivers
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All
device drivers that are used by the local rendering operating system will
be drawn from the internet connection at the time of the device
installation. This is a new feature of the INet
computer platform. By using a new set of local function stored, called IIOS, named after BIOS,
device drivers will be quickly downloaded, compiled and installed. Overlay functionality
may also be possible so that concurrent download and overlay operations can take place.
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Connections
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USB
– the USB interface will be the same as current accept that the
device driver will actually be loaded from the internet database and catalog
for the computer. No more shipping disks for the device. The operating
system will use the Identification of the device to find the driver in the
database. This database is updated by the manufacturer.
LAN
connection
ADSL
connection
WIFI
connection
Memory
Cards for Digital Cameras
Bluetooth
enabled
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