Initial proof of concept

README.md

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+# Physical
+
+Physical is a library for interacting with the physical world from a computer. This can broadly be broken down into two
+categories:
+
+* Collecting and digitizing data from the physical world.
+* Controlling devices that take physical action.
+
+## Concepts
+
+The main concepts of Physical are:
+
+* Peripheral: A peripheral is a board that hosts physical I/O and usually does analog to digital conversion or
+  digital to analog conversion. A peripheral cannot function on its own, it must be connected to a node. This is more
+  narrow than the definition of a peripheral in embedded systems generally. Peripheral support is focused on complete
+  boards, not individual components like an ADC. Although common abstractions for components specific to physical
+  can be provided in this repository, general component abstractions / drivers should be made separately, such as in
+  BFPOWER drivers.
+* Node: A node hosts peripherals. A node can have a commander but does not need one. A node can ignore or even override
+  commands from the commander. In a complex system, nodes are intended to be kept simple, less likely to
+  encounter an error than the commander, and in some cases should check for obvious problems in commands from the
+  commander. Node can also communicate with other nodes.
+* Commander: A commander hosts nodes. It performs long running computations and directs nodes based on the results.