IBM Builds Computer The Size Of A Grain Of Salt

And it costs less than 10 cents to make!

IBM has unveiled what it says is the world’s smallest computer. Each of the new computers will be roughly the size of a grain of salt, and each one will cost less than 10 US cents to make.

But no-one is going to be playing the latest video games on this new computer, at least to start with. The new computer is intended to be used specifically in logistics applications.

The size of the small computer is quite astounding, measuring a tiny 1 millimeter by 1 millimeter. Most surprising however is that IBM claim each computer has around the same processing power of a 1990s era CPU.

New computer can monitor, analyze, communicate, and even act on data.

Computing power

According to IBM, that’s all the computing power it needs to perform data handling on the required scale. IBM revealed the new computers on the first day of its IBM Think 2018 live events series. The release marks another move in IBM’s now several-year journey into Blockchain experimentation.

Barely visible

“The world’s smallest computer is an IBM-designed edge device architecture and computing platform that is smaller than a grain of salt will cost less than ten cents to manufacture, and can monitor, analyze, communicate, and even act on data,” IBM claims. “It packs several hundred thousand transistors into a footprint barely visible to the human eye and can help verify that a product has been handled properly throughout its long journey”.

Cryptographic anchors

IBM’s Arvind Krishna said: “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.

“They’ll be used in tandem with block chain’s distributed ledger technology to ensure an object’s authenticity from its point of origin to when it reaches the hands of the customer.”

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