Welcome
to the PicoWebTM server home page. The technology employed
in the PicoWeb server represents a fundamental breakthrough in networking technology
enabling the construction of compact, low-cost, low-power, fully functional, stand-alone
World Wide Web servers.
Background
In the last several years, with the commercialization of the Internet and the explosive
growth of the World Wide Web (WWW), we have seen the realization of many people's dream of
a universal information database, accessible to people from around the world, and
organized in a way that related information is easily discovered. What the WWW has
done is provide users connected to computer networks with a consistent means to access a
wide variety of media in a simplified fashion. The first popular software interface to the
WWW was called Mosaic, which spawned the creation of today's ubiquitous Netscape
Communicator and Microsoft Internet Explorer "WWW browsers". The WWW has
fundamentally changed the way people view and create information by providing the first
truly global hypermedia network which is accessible to virtually everyone on the planet.
With the wide spread deployment of the Internet and the WWW both as a public resource
and as corporate and home private resources, people have come to recognize the utility of
attaching low-cost devices to networks for the purposes of communicating with these
devices using standard networking protocols, including TCP, IP, and HTTP. In fact,
connecting almost any device to a network immediately increases the utility of that device
because that it can now be accessed remotely for the purposes of data display, remote
control, testing, diagnosis, configuration, communication, etc. If connected to the
Internet, that device becomes instantly accessible from virtually any place in the world.
Almost any device which contains a computer can benefit from a network connection. In
fact, a network connection even can result in a reduction in the cost of a device, both in
terms of total ownership cost, or often times, in terms of initial device cost. If, for
example, the device supports HTTP, the use of a WWW browser running on another computer on
the network can eliminate the need for an otherwise complex and costly display and/or
keyboard on the device. However, for this particular cost-benefit trade-off to result in a
net savings, the cost of adding the network functions must be less than the cost saving
from simplifying and/or eliminating the display and/or keyboard functions.
It is in this particular low-cost design space that the PicoWeb technology comes into
play. Lightner Engineering's PicoWeb server has
established several "new lows" in the race to produce small form-factor,
low-cost, energy-conserving, embedded Internet-based devices. Lightner Engineering's
engineering expertise and proprietary firmware technology embodied in the PicoWeb server
are the key to these technological milestones. This has been accomplished using
inexpensive, off-the-shelf commodity microcontrollers and network interface hardware with
astonishingly small program and data memory storage requirements.
Our Mission
We are committed to the continued development of custom low-cost, stand-alone WWW
servers and network-enabled devices which make use of the PicoWeb technology. We are
actively soliciting joint development partnerships and licensing agreements with
established companies to promote this unique networking technology. We also intend
to support the educational and hobbyist communities with low-cost PicoWeb firmware
development tools, developer kits, and technical support. Although we are a small
company, our goals are large. We hope that we can be of service to you!
Company Profile
Lightner Engineering develops custom hardware and software solutions for industry.
Our staff includes dedicated professionals with both domestic and global expertise
in applying technology and business strategies to achieve innovative solutions. We offer
decades of experience in developing hardware and software based products for a global
marketplace. We offer broad, in-depth, up-to-date, technical understanding of the computer
industry, covering all areas, from high-level system software development to low-level
integrated circuit design. We are irrepressible tool builders with a large array of proven
problem-solving methods at your disposal. We are innovative, eager problem-solvers,
especially in time-critical situations where time-to-market is an overriding concern.
Contact Information
Lightner Engineering is located in San Diego, California.
