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The World's Smallest Computer Is the Size of a Grain of Salt
Seeker ^ | 4/3/18 | John Dyer

Posted on 04/04/2018 12:27:23 PM PDT by LibWhacker

IBM has developed the world’s smallest computer, which could help track objects, foil counterfeiters, and boost efficiency.

A computer as big as a grain of salt could transform shipping that crisscrosses the planet, said IBM researchers who recently unveiled the experimental device.

Using blockchain technology that would provide a secure and efficient log of physical objects tagged with the tiny computers, shippers could track goods at every step of extended supply chains, foiling counterfeiters and upping efficiency, Dan Friedman, senior manager of communication circuits and systems at IBM Research, told Seeker.

“That’s what we want to do — something that would get you more security than a paper barcode,” said Friedman. “This thing is capable of having a digital signature. There will actually be a cryptographic identification.”

IBM researchers unveiled what they billed as the world’s smallest computer at Think 2018, the company’s big annual conference, in Las Vegas on March 19.

As powerful as an x86 processing chip dating from 1990, the tiny computer won’t help NASA put astronauts on Mars anytime soon. But it has enough computational and communicative power to interact with systems tracking it.

Blockchains resist tampering — they work via dispersed networks where alterations appear simultaneously everywhere — but until now the technology has been applied mostly to virtual currencies, not physical objects. IBM researchers realized they had found the interface between blockchain technology and the physical world, said Friedman.

Now, conceivably, he and his colleagues had discovered a way to prove the authenticity of things that have passed through many countries on the way to consumers. The world's smallest computer from IBM Research is an ultra-compact, low-cost computing device with several hundred thousand transistors, storage, power, and communications capabilities all packed into a footprint about the size of a grain of salt. | IBM Research

The total value of counterfeit goods was estimated to be $1.8 trillion in 2015, said Andreas Kind, an IBM researcher, at the Think 2018 conference.

“Let’s take your car. You bring it to the garage. It turns out the brakes are run down. When you get your car back, can you be sure that the new brakes are actually original?” asked Kind. “Can you be sure your car will brake on the highway as it’s supposed to? In certain regions of the world, 40 percent of the parts in the automotive aftermarket are actually fake.”

The same principle could be applied to medications and other items with life-threatening consequences, he added.

Privacy advocates might issue a note of caution at this point, Friedman admitted. After all, if businesses could track a crate of oranges from Beijing to Miami, the government could conceivably track innocent citizens who have ingested one of the devices.

“I think with all of these things we need to think about the ethics,” he said.

But Friedman downplayed those concerns.

Hurdles remain before the tiny computer hits the market, he said. A system for reading the computer’s information and transferring that data to a blockchain for safekeeping has yet to be perfected.

More importantly, Friedman said the tiny computers are not like GPS trackers, and blockchains stymie hackers if anyone could access them somehow.

“They are not that easy to communicate with,” said Friedman. “Certainly, inside your body nobody would be able to communicate with that. The range is limited. You would have to successfully complete the cryptographic identification.”

Older tech like social media networks and our mobile phones already give away more data on ourselves, he added.

“I don't think the capacity of this system is such that it really provides the same window of opportunity for mischief as our cell phones do and our online presence does,” he said.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Computers/Internet; Science
KEYWORDS: blockchain; computer; smallest; worlds
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1 posted on 04/04/2018 12:27:24 PM PDT by LibWhacker
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To: LibWhacker

Geez...and I hate typing on my laptop because it’s too small!


2 posted on 04/04/2018 12:28:11 PM PDT by pgkdan (The Silent Majority STILL Stands With TRUMP!)
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To: LibWhacker

Will it play Doom?


3 posted on 04/04/2018 12:31:46 PM PDT by Ciaphas Cain (Progressives are turning America into "Harrison Bergeron" if conceived by Ayn Rand.)
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To: LibWhacker

How big is the usb port ?


4 posted on 04/04/2018 12:33:08 PM PDT by redcatcherb412
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To: LibWhacker
A system for reading the computer’s information and transferring that data to a blockchain for safekeeping has yet to be perfected.

I'm sure the NSA has a program that is working on this right now...looking forward to the day when everyone gets one implanted. Could this be why the Gubmint is pushing flu shots for everyone?

5 posted on 04/04/2018 12:34:38 PM PDT by Bloody Sam Roberts (Perhaps we should care less about who we may offend and care more about who we may inspire.)
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To: LibWhacker

Dang! Now I have to upgrade my XT.....................


6 posted on 04/04/2018 12:34:47 PM PDT by Red Badger (The people who call Trump a tyrant are the same people who want the president to confiscate weapons.)
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To: LibWhacker

To download data to a desktop you’ll need a chord with a tiny plug on one end and a normal size plug on the other end.


7 posted on 04/04/2018 12:51:07 PM PDT by Terry Mross (Liver spots And blood thinners..)
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To: Red Badger
To see a world in a grain of sand,

And heaven in a wild flower,

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,

and eternity in an hour.

.

Red Badger unplugged!

Throw 'em all away!

Live like a free man again!! .

.

Don't look at me lol.

8 posted on 04/04/2018 12:51:14 PM PDT by Fightin Whitey
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To: Fightin Whitey

As Steve Jobs(?) once said, “”Having tamed the lightning, we are now teaching sand to think.”.................


9 posted on 04/04/2018 1:05:05 PM PDT by Red Badger (The people who call Trump a tyrant are the same people who want the president to confiscate weapons.)
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To: LibWhacker

Is that a fine grain, or a course grain?


10 posted on 04/04/2018 1:06:31 PM PDT by Magnum44 (My comprehensive terrorism plan: Hunt them down and kill them)
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To: LibWhacker

Typing on the tiny keyboard is a b*tch, though.


11 posted on 04/04/2018 1:11:51 PM PDT by dangus
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To: redcatcherb412
How big is the usb port ?

It uses Ultra Small Bits, so the port is no longer needed.

12 posted on 04/04/2018 1:21:17 PM PDT by libertylover (If people come here legally, they're immigrants; if they come here illegally, they're invaders.)
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To: LibWhacker
As powerful as an x86 processing chip dating from 1990, the tiny computer won’t help NASA put astronauts on Mars anytime soon. But it has enough computational and communicative power to interact with systems tracking it.

It sounds like a broad definition of computer as most people would think of computer.

It's more like a 'smart' electronic programmable tracking barcode.

It has a place and function in business.

Aren't these more or else equivalent to chips you implant in pets?

13 posted on 04/04/2018 2:14:26 PM PDT by yesthatjallen
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To: Ciaphas Cain

How well will Lotus Notes run on it?

What about printer drivers?


14 posted on 04/04/2018 2:19:40 PM PDT by wally_bert (I didn't get where I am today by selling ice cream tasting of bookends, pumice stone & West Germany)
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To: wally_bert

The printer takes sand paper.


15 posted on 04/04/2018 2:35:05 PM PDT by Larry Lucido
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To: wally_bert
How well will Lotus Notes run on it?

It runs ok if you compact the replica and update the index!
16 posted on 04/04/2018 4:09:37 PM PDT by \/\/ayne (I regret that I have but one subscription cancellation notice to give to my local newspaper.)
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To: pgkdan

Nevertheless, the really tiny USB connector is pretty tough.


17 posted on 04/04/2018 4:16:41 PM PDT by GingisK
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To: LibWhacker

Interesting development. Now it’s up to someone to come up with groundbreaking way of using it. You could be the next computer genius.


18 posted on 04/04/2018 4:26:44 PM PDT by McGruff (#StopTheInvasion)
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To: LibWhacker

When are they going to shrink us all to fit?


19 posted on 04/04/2018 4:47:29 PM PDT by YogicCowboy ("I am not entirely on anyone's side, because no one is entirely on mine." - J. R. R. Tolkien)
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To: LibWhacker
wait till they put it in money...
20 posted on 04/04/2018 4:49:45 PM PDT by Chode (You have all of the resources you are going to have. Abandon your illusions and plan accordingly.)
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