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from the technology-is-getting-bigger-and-smaller dept.
IBM has built a computer smaller than a grain of salt intended for anti-counterfeiting... and it uses a blockchain:
IBM has unveiled what it claims is the world's smallest computer—the size of a grain of salt. The computer will cost less than $0.10 to manufacture, and is intended for logistics applications.
The device is one type of what IBM calls "crypto-anchors"—"digital fingerprints" that can be embedded in everyday items in order to verify their provenance and contents. Another example of this concept is edible ink that can be stamped on pills.
The idea is to use these methods to link things to their records, which are stored on a blockchain.
The computer includes several hundred thousand transistors, static RAM, an LED and a photodetector for communication, and an integrated solar cell.
Also at Engadget, Notebookcheck, and CNET.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Guppy on Tuesday March 20 2018, @12:52AM
From a passage in Vernor Vinge's "A Deepness in the Sky" -- the Larson Localizer, a prototype of the Smart Dust concept, featuring cheap ultra-tiny processors, equipped with a few transducers and sensors of various types: