Sizzle is a wireless Web server and is based on an 8-bit microprocessor designed by Crossbow Technology Inc. The server has 8Kb of main memory, which implements a stripped-down operating system plus a Web server and an SSL server. Crossbow has created its own operating system, called TinyOS, for these remote computers, often referred to as motes.
The mote that Sun is using in Sizzle is called the MICA2DOT, and it is powered by a three-volt button battery, like the kind in your motherboard to keep your BIOS settings alive. It is unclear if Sun is using TinyOS or a stripped-down version of Solaris or Linux to create its micro Web server.
Sun is adding 128Kb of flash memory to the mote, and it is implementing a version of SSL based on Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) that Sun says makes public key cryptography suitable on a very tiny machine with extremely limited capabilities.
Sizzle can complete an SSL handshake in under four seconds, and can do it in under two seconds with sessions that are reused; the Web server can transfer about 450 bytes per second. While you may not be able to run Yahoo on it, you can build vast arrays of sensors with ad hoc networking, which is what motes are for.
