Somniloquy external networking card lets PCS "sleep talk" essential connectivity functions

Some researchers at UC San Diego, teamed up with Microsoft Research, have a novel new method in the works to let your computer save on power in sleep mode while still keeping up with IMs and whatever other network activity you pesky folks might be up to. Dubbed "Somniloquy," the USB dongle acts as an external networking card, and takes over most of the communication duties, with its own embedded OS and flash memory (similar to the Killer NIC). When the computer goes to sleep, Somniloquy maintains IM connections, ongoing downloads and torrents, and keeps your computer present on the local network and wireless LAN. If an activity arrives that needs the full computer, Somniloquy wakes up the computer and patches it through -- going so far as to buffer downloads into flash memory, and then dump it periodically on to the hard drive. The wake-on network activity concept is nothing new, but Somniloquy really runs with it, and boasts up to 60 to 80 percent overall energy savings based on the person's usage habits. The device is currently in prototype stage, and in the future all its functionality could be integrated into a PC's network card -- and hopefully won't just be for the pros this time.

[404 @ Apr 25th 2009 6:04AM]

Reading through the read link, this sounds like it's essentially a small, low-powered computer minion to do your desktops bidding when it wants to go to sleep. Whenever the minion is in over it's head, it wakes the master, then takes over again later.

This is an awesome idea, but I think it's kind of odd that people might buy a minion for their desktop.

It makes lots of sense though.

[Bobsley @ Apr 25th 2009 6:09AM]

mmm... minions... my Harkonnen side is all ears.

[Alex @ Apr 25th 2009 6:32AM]

Hopefully one day there could be an open standard version in motherboards.

[Dexter. @ Apr 25th 2009 9:18AM]

@Bobsley

Should Feyd be worried?

[Matt @ Apr 25th 2009 9:31AM]

Isn't this essentially a little part of what that Asus concept computer with the Tegra based trackpad was going to do?

[Quantumphysics @ Apr 25th 2009 10:49AM]

We thought the Terminator was deactivated...turned out, it had Somlioquoy installed.

It watched us the whole time...

[Major4Play @ Apr 25th 2009 6:08AM]

*Correction


"Somniloquy external networking card let PCs "sleep talk" essential connectivity functions"

[vern @ Apr 25th 2009 1:14PM]

So close, Major.

"Somniloquy external networking card lets PCs "sleep talk" essential connectivity functions"

Nitpicking begets further nitpicking.

[Quantumphysics @ Apr 25th 2009 1:30PM]

VERN



"Somniloquy external networking card, lets PC's 'sleep talk' essential connectivity functions..."

[Josh @ Apr 25th 2009 2:05PM]

I disagree Quantum.

[kylehase @ Apr 25th 2009 6:14AM]

Good luck trying to explain to your significant other that you didn't respond to her/his IM for several hours because your computer was off but your magic network card maintains your online presence.

[Alex @ Apr 25th 2009 6:34AM]

I expect receiving an email or IM would count as something it can't handle it's self, and would wake up the machine. Would be a good idea to set your status to Away when you are AFK.

[bdav @ Apr 25th 2009 7:05AM]

They should sell it as VM for IM.

[zfurie @ Apr 25th 2009 7:35AM]

I want this thing if it can to talk to my Missus while I'm away and partying and clubbing and uhm.. well.. taking care of the baby.

[Wwhat @ Apr 25th 2009 6:33AM]

Let's name this device 'router', I just made up that word, has a ring to it doesn't it, a comforting familiarity almost.

[Alex @ Apr 25th 2009 6:35AM]

Are you saying you have a router that has this functionality?

[Ross @ Apr 25th 2009 11:30AM]

Do you even know what a router is?

[Wwhat @ Apr 25th 2009 1:09PM]

...

[Wwhat @ Apr 25th 2009 1:14PM]

You dufuses are aware that there are plenty of routers that run a linux and plenty have onboard torrent clients and what not and USB connectors for storage for sharing/torrent-storage/ftp and what not and that a router keeps your connection to the ISP when your computer is switched off right?
I guess you did not, nor did mr miller.

[dreamscape86 @ Apr 25th 2009 2:42PM]

I'm thinking Ross is gonna take that as a "no" then...

But maybe you're right. Maybe it runs "a linux." And what not.

[Wwhat @ Apr 25th 2009 3:22PM]

I KNEW IT, somebody that is hampered in language can't handle a slight variation, clearly there are linux distributions of various kinds, and various incarnations of linux, now obviously the linux used on routers is unlikely to be a full 'distro' so I used the term 'a linux' to indicate it's a homebrew package, even though I was already aware of the kind of comments there are today, and what the next comment would be, so I blame myself really.
Thanks for your input though.

[dishbreak @ Apr 25th 2009 4:29PM]

First off, anyone who calls another reader a doofus is automatically a jerk in my view. Grow up.

Second, this is meant to do WAY more than just BT. It's intention is to keep ALL network activity going even if the computer's asleep. Doing it the way they've done it means that computers will consume less power, and don't always need to be up.

Read the damn article.

[Wwhat @ Apr 25th 2009 8:39PM]

I'm disappointed by the level of common sense shown in the comments in the weekend.
Or perhaps I should say I'm surprised that the rest of the time people have more sense, since my judgement of people in general isn't that flattering.
But congrats to those that bought a bridge this week and kudos to those that financially helped out a nigerian widow.
Now go buy yourself this thing from those smart researchers in san diego and their kind and learned friends at microsoft. And as soon as they invent it, that device into which you can talk and people far away hear it, amazing stuff.

[Alex @ Apr 25th 2009 9:02PM]

Wwhat, this thing isn't a DSL modem that "keeps your connection to the ISP."

When you put your computer into a low power (ACPI S1-S3 say) state, it will "off load" current tasks onto the USB device. Think things like HTTP downloads, BitTorrents, IM and TCP sessions. If there is activity on these tasks that the USB device can't handle on it's own it will wake up the master PC.

The routers you're talking about that have built in BitTorrent clients do not do this. You have to upload the .torrent file to your modem/router, it will download the torrent, then you download the content to your PC. You must see this is a LOT more involved than the previous scenario I just described. IE: Hit the sleep button, you're done.

[superhobo @ Apr 25th 2009 6:41AM]

Nice idea.

Knowing people, most wont bother using it.

[GingerFox @ Apr 25th 2009 6:57AM]

this is pretty awesome, would be good for a really low power torrenting machine

[▀█▀ █ ▀█▀ ▄█▀ @ Apr 25th 2009 7:23AM]

Actually most good routers work as low power torrenting machines these days with USB media or NAS. And routers are always on anyways, so no real additional power needed.
I don't see the market for this device, unless they add system management functions to reboot a frozen machine remotely for example.

[Jebus @ Apr 25th 2009 8:50AM]

^^ how can the torrent be downloading without the computer on? Unless the router had its own OS with torrent software

[▀█▀ █ ▀█▀ ▄█▀ @ Apr 25th 2009 9:13AM]

@Jebus
That is exactly what I am talking about. Good routers can run torrent clients and use attached USB drives or network attached storage. Many modern routers support this out-of-the-box, or you can install alternative firmware that allows you to do that.
One could use DD-WRT for example and install a torrent client:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Optware#Installing_torrent_client

[Jebus @ Apr 25th 2009 11:04AM]

wow thanks a lot man, to my liking i have a newer linksys router so its flashing time!!

[noisymime @ Apr 25th 2009 7:04AM]

Interesting that Microsoft are getting behind it despite the fact that the hardware is running linux on a gumstix.

[▀█▀ █ ▀█▀ ▄█▀ @ Apr 25th 2009 9:25AM]

It could just as easily run WindowsCE.

[Ruben @ Apr 25th 2009 1:19PM]

What the OS is on the device is not important. What is important is that the OS does what it needs to do, and that the messages it sends back to the PC's OS is something that is understandable.

Microsoft does alot of work on Linux. They just prefer you use their products.

[greenwizard88 @ Apr 25th 2009 7:26AM]

I think this is one of the few inventions I've seen in the past few years that's actually, you know... noteworthy.

[Jeff Myers @ Apr 25th 2009 7:34AM]

This would be great for keeping my Squeezebox Boom connected at night so its alarm could wake me in the morning!

[r3loaded @ Apr 25th 2009 8:17AM]

A low-power device that maintains a continuous online presence and handles small tasks like IM, downloads and torrents? And it's used in tandem with a higher-powered computer?

I have a gadget that does that - it's called a netbook...

[Ross @ Apr 25th 2009 11:31AM]

K, so your netbook can do all the above functionality and have infinite battery?

[Ruben @ Apr 25th 2009 1:27PM]

Clearly missed the point of the device.

This is intended to be a standard feature in future network adapter cards and chipsets.

Network activity can remain active while your PC goes to sleep. Most network activity is such a low intensity task, and is often a very time consuming task as well, such as maintaining large downloads. Network tasks that would take hours would no longer need the PC on throughout the whole task.

If its a free feature, why the hell not? To do that now, we need another low power device to maintain such activities, and a way of distributing the large download back to the PC, either through a network share or some other means. It just makes more sense to make that part of the high power device, so the task is completely seamless.

[Riley @ Apr 25th 2009 8:53AM]

Do want!

[Dekstar @ Apr 25th 2009 11:42AM]

I know it's not exactly the same, but my Asus P5K Deluxe motherboard has a similar feature called AI Nap, which lowers overall voltage to all components (underclocking them), and cuts GPU power completely. IT also lowers CPU and if it can, case fan speeds to ultra quiet.
So it's a very low power mode, but the computer is still running and everything still downloads fine. I quite like the idea of this little device, and if it had an inbuilt battery and could keep feeding power to the RAM on the motherboard when it's in sleep if the power goes out, then I would definitely buy it.

[Harry Wagstaff @ Apr 25th 2009 12:06PM]

The problem with this is that you have to have ASUS drivers installed which are so badly written they more or less class as malware. I've had conflicts with newer graphics drivers causing crashes in Fallout 3 and GTA4 (pinned specifically to the ASUS drivers, before any of you start laying into the reliability of either of those games), and uninstalling them is a pain because their uninstaller is known to break and only half-uninstall.

[loocas @ Apr 25th 2009 11:42AM]

Ah! This'd be very handy for what I had to go through on friday. Quite a number of frashly brought-in computers in our render farm had a default "sleep" function still turned on and when I wanted to configure every one of them via remote desktop I couldn't wake them up!

Man, I had to drive through the whole, crammed and jammed, city to the office, manually set things up and go back to my home office for final touches... Such a waste of time!

[loosely_coupled @ Apr 25th 2009 5:31PM]

This is excellent and a similar system should be built into new Intel motherboards! Its basically an embedded cellphone processor runnig linux with connection to the network adapter and intelligent software!