Two former Motorola engineers, frustrated by the constant attention and maintenance required to keep Web servers running and safe from attack, have designed a new Web server to run———potentially for years———without human input.

　　The server runs on a″kernel,″just 4KB in size, rather thanshavingsan operating system.

　　According to Eric Hauk and Eric Uner, the two men behind the project, it is a significant departure from every other sort of device running the Internet today. Their server eschews the notion of″enterprise computing″in favor of″embedded computing,″which lies behind medical and other devices that have extremely small margins for error. Hauk and Uner said their server is virtually immune from hackers and viruses, though they concede their system sacrifices some flexibility for its security and reliability.

　　Some observers were skeptical, saying that the system＇s security has not yet been tested and that other systems can be made extremely reliable if operators install patches and updates.