What do the first general-purpose programmable electronic computer and greeting cards that play musical jingles have in common? DARPA cites both of them as the inspiration for a project seeking low-resource computing paradigms to be used on future battlefields.

DARPA on Friday put out a request for information (RFI) for new low-resource computing (LRC) paradigms and processes that haven't been utilized yet in microscale systems not unlike the tiny chip-and-battery combos found in greeting cards and children's books. Apparently, thinking about those and the 80th anniversary of the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) has DARPA wondering why more useful things can't be made in a tiny form factor.

"The physical and financial cost of computation has plummeted so far that it is routinely embedded in disposable novelties," the RFI said, pointing to the fact that a greeting card chip has processing speed and memory capacity vastly exceeding those of ENIAC. "The computation itself has become virtually free; the physical resources required to sustain, house, and power it have become the critical bottleneck."

DARPA isn't trying to miniaturize a datacenter, in other words. This is specifically about what it said is a "resource paradox" at the low end of the computing spectrum, and it's one the Pentagon's research arm thinks is ripe for exploitation to power battlefield computing needs. 

To that end, DARPA said it's seeking concepts that address areas like operating with little power and memory, tolerating unreliable components, and requiring little technological sophistication. Regarding the latter, DARPA said it wants systems that can be built using low-precision manufacturing techniques, legacy fabrication processes, and/or "primitive technological ecosystems."

Responses need to address at least one of those issues, DARPA said, and ideally (though optionally) one of its defined logistical predicaments as well. 

By those, DARPA is referring to the sorts of things that would constrain operation in environments where the US military typically operates. Concerns include low-trust environments where data sources and system components may not be trustworthy, operating with the minimum necessary privileges to avoid root access concerns, simple user experiences that even the average grunt can understand, and what may be the most complex issue of them all: self-hosting.

We're not talking about soldiers in the field managing their own websites here, though. This is actually about autonomous systems.

DARPA wants cheap, tiny, and reliable devices that are still "capable of native, user-directed, autonomous self-programming and self-modification without reliance on external cross-compilation toolchains or host machines," as well as "architectures that allow the system to adapt, recompile, or generate its own operational code entirely on device."

That's quite the ask for microscale, low-end hardware, but hey – it's not like DARPA hasn't been the proving ground for a bunch of technology we all use on a regular basis. Someday soon even your average electronic greeting card might host a mini AI if this program proves successful. ®