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IBM Unveils the 'World's Smallest Computer' (mashable.com)
On the first day of IBM Think 2018, the company's flagship conference, IBM has unveiled what it claims is the world's smallest computer. It's smaller than a grain of salt and features the computer power of the x86 chip from 1990. Mashable first spotted this gem: The computer will cost less than ten cents to manufacture, and will also pack "several hundred thousand transistors," according to the company. These will allow it to "monitor, analyze, communicate, and even act on data." It works with blockchain. Specifically, this computer will be a data source for blockchain applications. It's intended to help track the shipment of goods and detect theft, fraud, and non-compliance. It can also do basic AI tasks, such as sorting the data it's given. According to IBM, this is only the beginning. "Within the next five years, cryptographic anchors -- such as ink dots or tiny computers smaller than a grain of salt -- will be embedded in everyday objects and devices," says IBM head of research Arvind Krishna. If he's correct, we'll see way more of these tiny systems in objects and devices in the years to come. It's not clear yet when this thing will be released -- IBM researchers are currently testing its first prototype.
I know, I know, we don't read the article. And this one was crap too. Buzzword noise.
But the block diagram was included, at least, and that's fascinating. Unlike Intel and their little chip, IBM has actually thought about the practicality of using the thing. It comes with an integrated solar cell and an integrated photo-diode communications array for both transmission and receipt of data. It also includes some SRAM. No mention of how many bytes, no mention of data throughput from the array, no mention of actual power consumption (and accompanying heat dissipation).
All coverage appears to be essentially content-free crap designed to pump IBM's stock price.
Maybe somebody can figure out what to do with it. It's going to be difficult since all I/O requires line of sight.
The headline said "IBM has created a computer smaller than a grain of salt" but they compare it to Kosher Salt (Or another variety with the grain size if bigger).
If you want to use an headline like this at least make sure it's smaller than the most popular type of salt. I mean, I've worked in a salt mine where I could find salt rock bigger than your house.
Elok
The picture of a chip sitting on a finger in the article is 64 motherboards.
Each motherboard is 1x1mm, which includes the CPU, SRAM, a PV cell for power and an LED/photodiode for I/O.
Smaller than a relatively big grain of salt.
I'm a little confused about the power of the thing though. They say it's similar performance to a CPU from 1990, which would be a 486.
Except the 486 had over 1 million transistors, this has 100,000. That's more on par with a 286 from the early 80's