[PLUG-ANNOUNCE] Second announcement - Server Sky informal discussion Weds Mar 18 at 7pm

[Keith Lofstrom]

Since we don't have a venue or a speaker for our regular Advanced
topics meeting, I am informally scheduling a discussion of Server
Sky at the Northwest Lucky Lab Beer Hall at 1945 NW Quimby at 700pm.
I haven't made any formal arrangements with them, or secured the
meeting room, so we will probably end up gathering around one or
two tables, with a few pictures on my laptop.  

About Server Sky:


I am working on the early stages of an idea that could result in
a largish startup.  See http://www.server-sky.com .  It's a wiki,
so I'm looking for positive contributions.

The idea is an enormous array of satellites that are little more
than a naked solar cell with processor chips, memory chips, and
radio chips hung around the edge.  These "server-sats" will be
about 40 cm across, thinner than a sheet of paper, and weigh
perhaps 30 grams.  They can be launched in stacks of 33,000 ,
perhaps 4 stacks to a launch, and deployed in arrays.  They turn
solar power into computation and communication to the ground. 
Operating as a phased array, they can communicate with multiple
small regions on the ground, more like cell phones than sat-phones.

As outlandish as it sounds, it appears that a server-sat can be 
built and launched for less than $500 US (as part of a stack of
100,000 or so) , and pay for itself relative to ground based
server farms through electricity and backhaul savings alone -
each one saves about 100W of ground based power, and lots of
infrastructure.  Local (Washington County, Oregon, USA)
businesses such as SolarWorld, Intel, Triquint, Maxim, Sharp,
Merix, D.W. Fritz, and others could build just about everything
but the rocket and the satellite container it is deployed
from (Boeing?).  

Talents needed?  Right now, coding, graphics, and the ability
to read science, do math, and do web and library research. 
I can also use help naming things (engineering linguistics?)
and writing up what we already know.  When this gets slashdotted,
we will need a community to answer questions.  I need a little
Mailman help to set up the mailing list (I forgot how).  I can
use a LOT of help designing the community so it can scale and
create jobs and services for us, while remaining free and open. 
If this works, it will be too important to the world to make
all the decisions in corporate back rooms.

The idea is still in its infancy, but it is showing signs of
surviving to adulthood.  I want to crowd-source the conceptual
design, and figure PLUG is a good place to start. 

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs




-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs