From: antispam@fricas.org   
      
   Don Y  wrote:   
   > On 2/20/2026 11:07 PM, bitrex wrote:   
   >> Is this a high-frequency trading box? Are you building a salami-slicer   
   >   
   > No.  More IoT but with all of the processing in the leafs [sic]   
   > instead of an unscalable "central processor" trying to coordinate   
   > the activities of motes.   
   >   
   > Why put a processor in a mote if all its going to do is sense   
   > something or control an actuator -- based on decisions made by   
   > some other "smarter" entity?  Once you have the CPU and connectivity,   
   > why not migrate the smarts out to the periphery (folks are slowly   
   > starting to realize this is inevitable)   
      
   Well, the point is that processor close to hardware can:   
   - do real time things   
   - reduce bandwith needed for communication   
   - reduce need for wires   
      
   Such processor may be quite cheap (I can buy resonable MCU at $0.2   
   per piece and modules with MCU at $2 each), usually does not need mass   
   storage and can have tiny RAM.  Small MCU-s may be cheaper than   
   specialized chips, so it make sense to use them just to unify   
   hardware and lower the cost.   
      
   OTOH more complicated algorithms may need a lot of data, large   
   persistent starage, a lot of RAM.  Still, it is likely that a single   
   CPU can do all needed job.  Single CPU make many things simpler.  So   
   unless that is compelling need for more processing using relatively   
   dumb peripherial nodes and slightly more powerful cental node   
   makes a lot of sense.   
      
   Of course, in commercial settings people work on what they are   
   payed to do.  IIUC developers of say Home Assistant get no   
   incentives to make it working on really low cost hardware,   
   so you get requiremets like 8 GB ram, 16 (or maybe 32) GB   
   filesystem for something that should comfortably run in 32 MB   
   RAM and 500 MB filesystem.  Actually, IIUC comparable functionality   
   was available in the past on much smaller machines than the   
   32 MB RAM and 500 MB filesystem mentioned above, I am simply adding   
   a lot of slack, to allow higher-level coding and to reduce need   
   for micro-optimization.   
      
   --   
                                 Waldek Hebisch   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)