Since starting in the MIPI Consortium of the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL) a year ago, I have had many opportunities to get involved in youth outreach, from kids in middle school to incoming college freshmen. Most of my work has been with high school age students, which can be strange for me at times, because I myself only just completed my freshmen year at the University of New Hampshire (UNH). Even though I'm now officially a "college kid," I still think of myself as being very young. It has been an interesting challenge for me to get young students interested in my work.
The InterOp Insider
Digital Portsmouth brings the Digital World Together
By Tim Sheehan - June 12, 2013
This past winter, I spent a cold February night at the Portsmouth Music Hall's Digital Portsmouth event discussing "The Art of Making" on the New Hampshire Seacoast. Since I was one of the presenters, it didn't take long for things to heat up. Digital Portsmouth is the brainchild of Monte Bohanan, Director of Marketing for the Portsmouth Music Hall. Digital Portsmouth presents key individuals and organizations from the NH Seacoast by showcasing the creative, digital culture that is alive and thriving in our region. The schedule for gathering of Digital Portsmouth is quarterly and provides an opportunity for locals to network, see what others are doing in their fields, and enjoy a cocktail.
Announcing the Release of UNH EXS 1.3.0
By Patrick MacArthur - May 15, 2013
Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) is a high-performance networking technology that allows direct message passing from application virtual memory on one system to application virtual memory on another system. This message passing not only avoids the intermediate buffer copies that are required by TCP, but also bypasses the operating system kernel, resulting in higher throughput, lower latency, and lower CPU utilization than can be obtained on traditional networks. The three popular transport implementations of RDMA are InfiniBand, iWARP (Internet Wide-Area RDMA Protocol), and RoCE (RDMA over Converged Ethernet). The software layer is provided by the OpenFabrics Software (OFS) verbs library, which provides direct access to the RDMA hardware from userspace. The verbs library is powerful but also daunting to the network programmer, due to the complexity of direct access to the hardware.
MIPI D-PHY: The Physical Layer in your Phone
By Paul Willis - April 19, 2013
In the last 10 years, the Mobile Industry Processor Interface (MIPI) Alliance has created a set of specifications for communication between components within mobile devices, such as phones and tablets. In 2007, the UNH InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL) launched its MIPI consortium, which is currently one of the only labs that tests conformance against the MIPI D-PHY specification. D-PHY is the high speed physical layer specification that is used to communicate with cameras and displays. The physical layer is the lowest layer in data transmission and defines the electrical and physical characteristics of the signal and its medium, such as wires and connectors.
Be a part of the UNH-IOL at a quarter century!
By Bob Noseworthy - January 30, 2013
As Q4 2012 ends and 2013 begins, the UNH-IOL will enter its 25th year. In 1988, the needs of two competitive companies to work together to their mutual benefit helped form the InterOperability Laboratory. Since then, the thousands of companies partnering with the UNH-IOL all have benefited from this collaborative experiment between industry and academia. Our members in 1988 would easily recognize the UNH-IOL today as the same student-powered phenomena, fueled by the support of industry leaders to support the development of interoperable standards; of services to validate the conformance and interoperability of such standards; and, equally importantly, helping to apprentice the next generation of industry professionals.
Fibre Channel: A Quarter Century of Reliable Storage
By Jamie Bilodeau - January 23, 2013
For just under a year I have been working for the UNH-IOL within the Fibre Channel Consortium. Fibre Channel (FC) is a high-speed network technology for transferring data. Fibre channel is considered to be fast (most commonly at 2, 4 and 8 gigabit per second speeds) and highly reliable, making it ideal for Storage Area Networks (SANs). The storage components that make up an FC system are invisible to the servers, which simply enjoy direct access to a pool of storage.
Wanted: High School Students Interested in Technology
By - January 14, 2013
Part of the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Lab's (UNH-IOL) mission is to attract students to, and educate them for, future employment in cutting-edge technologies. We believe that this process should start early before students even enter college. Each summer the UNH-IOL recruits bright, ambitious high school students entering their senior year for a seven week paid internship at our state-of-the-art networking facility.
Big Shoes to Fill
By Jeremy Hochschwender - January 4, 2013
My name is Jeremy Hochschwender, and I work in the Mobile Industry Processor Interface (MIPI) consortium at the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Lab (UNH-IOL). I'm a freshman at UNH, pursuing a degree in Electrical Engineering. My experience with the UNH-IOL started before I came to UNH. As a senior in high school, I looked at a lot of schools; the key thing I looked for was real world experience. I originally had no intention of going to UNH, as I didn't think that they had any programs that could compete with the co-ops that many other engineering schools offer today. One can imagine my surprise when I discovered the UNH-IOL. It was the perfect setup for me, as it would allow me to gain work experience within the industry just down the street from campus.
Stay Calm it's Only IPv6
By Timothy Winters - December 13, 2012
The amount of devices connecting to the global internet is growing on a daily basis. New products are constantly communicating with each other to provide a better user experience. Running shoes connect to a wireless network to upload speed and distance. Automated temperature and light controls communicate with a central system of a building to keep the cost of energy down. Virtual machines allow for several operating systems to run on the same piece of hardware, thus driving down maintenance costs.
Remotely Testing iSCSI Targets
By - December 7, 2012
Test tool innovation is one of the major reasons for the success of the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Lab (UNH-IOL). Many consortia use some form of automation in their testing procedures, as intern Boo Strachan discussed in a previous blog post . In the Internet Small Computer Systems Interface (iSCSI) consortium, automation has been heavily emphasized throughout the test plan and test tool development process. Automated testing scripts have been written to emulate the behavior of an iSCSI initiator and iSCSI target device. Detailed results from tests are automatically formatted and written to file to later be reviewed by lab technicians. As the iSCSI standard is updated, test plans and test tools are also subsequently updated and new features are added in order to keep testing simple, effective, and up to date. Many of the tools developed and maintained in house are used exclusively by student technicians who perform daily tests within their group. It is becoming increasingly common, however, for consortia to make these tools available to their members. In the last couple of years, the iSCSI consortium has developed a remote testing tool that allows members to test an iSCSI Target, at their location, between normal testing reservations. While the majority of testing happens within the walls of the UNH-IOL facility, the iSCSI consortium's IP-based remote test tool offers a unique opportunity to allow companies to perform our two most popular target test suites without ever having to leave the comfort of their own facility.