Hi, David!

The SHARK (aka Strongarm Hardware Architecture Reference Kit, which Digital
management wanted called the Digittal Network Appliance Reference Design, or
DNARD) is a fast (233 MHz), inexpensive Network Computer Reference Design
developed by Digital Equipment Corporation's Internet Appliance Group,
partnering with Network Computer Inc/Oracle, Firmworks for firmware, National
Semiconductor for chipsets, Funai/Aranex/Wyse/Uniden and others who were
building variants of it, etc.  To put it another way, you could think of it
as the world's smallest, fastest, cheapest, easiest-to-use diskless Unix
workstation (though many folks have mounted small hard disks in theirs).
While the boxes really are cool (see:

              http://www.research.digital.com/SRC/iag

for full details), and many SHARKs had been built, the program was shut down
by Digital's senior management (if you keep up with the N.Y. Times, they had
an interesting article on this topic). When the program was killed, Digital's
remaining SHARKs were distributed to free software groups, universities, etc.

In a nutshell, the system has both conventional features (Ethernet, 32MB
SDRAM, VGA, serial port, parallel port, internal PCI and ISA-interfaced
daughtercards), but also consumer features (consumer IR RX/TX, game port,
Soundblaster audio). The reason I like it a lot for home control applications
is that it is very small (smaller than some notebook PCs), silent (no fan),
low power (8 watts flat out), does IR, and looks great in a stereo stand!!!

If it's something you just gotta' have, I've heard that Funai has a few more
of their units left, and they might sell you one...

Is that enough?

Cheers!
MarkF

David Feustel wrote:

> The recent Shark postings have aroused my interest.
>
> What is a 'Shark'?
>
> Thanks.
>
> "Mark J. Foster" wrote:
> >
> > Hello!
> >
> > I've been working on a new device driver for the SHARK for Home Control
> > applications, and thought I'd gauge the interest level in this work.
> > Specifically, I'm creating a fairly large device driver which actually
> > supports six devices on the SHARK, each of which is intended for home
> > control applications.  As such, all of the devices (with the exception
> > of the RS-232 port) record and playback "edge" transitions, which
> > enables them to be used regardless of the communications protocol
> > required by the equipment).
> >
> > Three general device classes are supported:
> >
> >     Consumer IR:   Full support for consumer IR input and output
> >     Serial RS-232: For connecting to X-10 devices, etc.
> >     Bitstreams:    For general purpose serial I/O, such as
> >                    connecting your SHARK to your stereo or
> >                    TV's proprietary control connection.
> >                    Example: Sony's S-Link.
> >
> > In total, six devices are created:
> >
> >     av0: Transmit and Receive on Serial Port Data lines
> >     av1: Transmit on RTS, Receive on CTS on Serial Port
> >     av2: Transmit on DTR, Receive on DSR on Serial Port
> >     av3: Transmit and Receive using hardware IR Controller
> >     av4: Transmit on RTS, Receive on CTS (Internal Port)
> >     av5: Transmit on DTR, Receive on DSR (Internal Port)
> >
> > While the driver definitely isn't done yet, virtually of the code has
> > been written,  and the code is heavily documented.  Perhaps most
> > impressive, consumer IR now appears to be working quite well - for the
> > first time this morning, I was able to control my VCR with my SHARK!
> >
> > Even better, I've created this code so that it is compatible with the
> > LIRC (Linux InfraRed Control) driver, which enables it to work directly
> > with this applications suite for general purpose control.  While I'm
> > still in the process of testing these apps, one thing works very well,
> > indeed: consumer IR can not only be recorded and played back, the system
> > can recognize specific buttons (well and quickly!), to allow you to
> > control your SHARK or home!  Down the line, I'll be testing the other
> > capabilities of this suite, such as being able to define buttons for use
> > as a remote mouse under X, the ability for remote control buttons to
> > execute arbitrary system commands, etc!
> >
> > Some of once thought that SHARKs would run the world...  well, maybe now
> > they can at least run your home theater system...
> >
> > Any interest?
> >
> > Thanks!
> > Mark J. Foster
> >
> > P.S.  This is definitely not ready for release yet.  Most significant of
> > all is that, like many of us, I'm still running the original April
> > release of the NetBSD code, so the code will need to be merged into the
> > upcoming full EGCS+linked libs+??? snapshot.  That, plus miscellaneous
> > bug fixes, IOCTLs for changing the UART and/or IR formats, etc, etc,
> > etc.
>
> --
> David Feustel
> Fort Wayne, Indiana
> 219-483-1857
>
> http://www.d-feustel.com