IBM has achieved a significant breakthrough in electronics miniaturization by creating what it calls the world’s smallest computer, measuring just 1 millimeter by 1 millimeter, roughly the size of a grain of salt.
This remarkable device, unveiled at the IBM Think 2018 conference, boasts the computing power equivalent to an x86 chip from 1990, making it just powerful enough, perhaps, to run the computer game Doom.
However, IBM envisions much more significant applications for this tiny computer. The company intends to utilize it in revolutionizing supply chain management by incorporating blockchain technology.
The mini-computer would be deployed to collect, process, and transmit data related to the movement of goods in supply chains.
The miniature computer is equipped with several hundred thousand transistors, SRAM memory, a communication unit that employs an LED for sending messages through blinking, and a photodetector capable of receiving optical signals.
Since plugging such a minuscule device into a power source is impractical, it features a photovoltaic cell to generate the necessary power for its operations.
(By Emily Tuner)
