SoulPad

SoulPad is a mobile computing project developed by IBM that enabled users to transfer their operating system between computers using a USB flash drive to offer a portable operating system.

The SoulPad's software stack is key to its operation.

Background

The SoulPad project was introduced in a 2004 research paper titled "Reincarnating PCs with Portable SoulPads".^[1] Researchers suggested that SoulPad could allow users to boot their personal operating environments from USB-compatible storage devices such as cell phones or iPods. The project aimed to separate the user's operating environment (the "soul"), from the physical hardware (the "body").

Usage

SoulPad allows users to carry their operating system on a USB storage device. The operating system can be copied onto the device, then connected on another computer and booted from the USB. This restores the operating system to the state of its last saved backup, enabling the user to resume work as if the environment had not been interrupted.^[2]

Implementation

SoulPad utilizes a layered software stack to implement its functionality. It uses the Live Linux distribution Knoppix as a host operating system. When the computer is powered on, Knoppix recognizes any attached devices and launches a virtual machine using VMware, which resumes the user's last session in their operating system. This process enables the system to restore the user's workspace on different hardware while maintaining functionality.

Challenges

Several challenges were identified during the development of SoulPad. One of the primary issues is the time required to resume the system from a saved state, which can take up to three minutes. This delay is due to Knoppix's need to recognize all connected devices. Security concerns have also been raised regarding access to the local disks of the temporary host computer. To address these issues, the researchers proposed creating system profiles to improve performance and mitigate security risks.^[1]

References

1. Raghunath, Mandayam; Narayanaswami, Chandra; Carter, Casey; Cáceres, Ramón (November 8, 2004). "Reincarnating PCs with Portable SoulPads" (PDF). IBM Research. Retrieved October 11, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
2. Cáceres, Ramón; Carter, Casey; Narayanaswami, Chandra; Raghunath, Mandayam (2005-06-06). "Reincarnating PCs with portable SoulPads". Proceedings of the 3rd international conference on Mobile systems, applications, and services. MobiSys '05. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery: 65–78. doi:10.1145/1067170.1067179. ISBN 978-1-931971-31-7.

External links

• Cáceres, Ramón; Carter, Casey; Narayanaswami, Chandra; Raghunath, Mandayam T. (November 8, 2004). Reincarnating PCs with Portable SoulPads. IBM Research Division. pp. 65–78. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved May 15, 2016.
• Cáceres, Ramón; Carter, Casey; Narayanaswami, Chandra; Raghunath, Mandayam T. (June 2005). "SoulPad". IBM Research. Pervasive, Mobile, Wearable Computing. Archived from the original on March 12, 2006. Retrieved May 15, 2016.
• Singer, Michael (August 12, 2005). "IBM brains capture a PC's soul". CNET. CNET News. Archived from the original on May 15, 2016. Retrieved May 15, 2016.
• Media related to SoulPad at Wikimedia Commons