For servers, Phar Lap thinks small

As Netscape Communications and Microsoft trumpet their industrial-strength Web servers, Phar Lap Software wants to be known for creating the world's smallest Web server.

Phar Lap today introduced its Embedded Web Technology, which the company is billing as the tiniest Web server around. Able to run on 1MB of memory on an Intel 386 microprocessor, the software is designed to be embedded in a variety of devices, such as seismographic monitors, weather stations, and floodwatch systems so that Web browsers can be used to get information collected by these devices.

Unlike the Netscape and Microsoft products, Phar Lap's server is not intended to handle a zillion hits from Web surfers. Instead, it sends the data in HTML format to a host server over a private dial-up or Internet connection. The host then relays the information to users through a full-scale Web server.

The Phar Lap system is scheduled for shipment to developers in the third quarter, complete with the company's 32-bit Realtime ETS Kernel, a TCP/IP stack, a set of Ethernet drivers, and point-to-point protocol (PPP) software.

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