February 7, 2007- As Project Blackbox hits the road to showcase the world’s first mobile, virtual datacenter, Sun SPOT sensors are along for the ride, monitoring the environment inside the container.

Project Blackbox is changing the way people think about the data center, much the same way the laptop redefined personal computing. It packages compute, storage, and network infrastructure into scalable, modular containers that can be shipped—or even driven—anywhere in the world. With one one-hundredth of the initial cost, one fifth the cost per square foot, and with 20 percent better power efficiency, Project Blackbox can deliver an immense multiple of compute capacity, on demand, anywhere.

As Project Blackbox embarks on a three-month road tour across the United States, one of the most interesting new technologies on board may not be easily visible: wireless "Sun SPOT” (Small Programmable Object Technology) sensors. Sun Labs researchers have deployed approximately 12 Sun SPOT devices within the Blackbox container, and they are being used to monitor a wide range of environmental conditions, including temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, vibration and physical location (GPS).

"Project Blackbox will provide an excellent proving ground for Project Sun SPOT, and the Sun SPOTs will help improve the value of Project Blackbox,” said Roger Meike, research director for Project Sun SPOT. "The operating environment for computing infrastructure is obviously a key concern—particularly when the systems are in transit. When the Blackbox container is in motion, the systems are powered down. Before you can power them back up, you need to know that the ambient temperature, the humidity level, and the barometric pressure remained within an acceptable range. The sensor data will help the Project Blackbox team determine what those levels are and help ensure maximum uptime for the systems within the Blackbox container.”

Essentially, the Sun SPOT devices track the conditions inside the container while it is in transit, and the Sun Labs team collects and records the data from the Sun SPOTs for subsequent analysis. This data could be used, for example, to create specific system diagnostic tests or to establish thresholds for conditions under which the systems can safely power up. Eventually, the Sun SPOT data could even be used as the basis for automated, remote power-up of Blackbox systems, or for proactive self-diagnostics, or autonomic monitoring.

The Sun SPOT system uses Java technology to up-level programming, and developers can write a program, load it on a Sun SPOT device, run it, and debug it with standard Java IDEs. The Sun SPOT platform is implemented with NetBeans, the Sun-sponsored, open IDE tool for Java development. (NetBeans is available for download free of charge at www.netbeans.org. For more information about the Sun SPOT platform and additional applications see www.sunspotworld.com).

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