Meet The World’s Smallest Computer

[Dave Lane]

Meet the Michigan Micro Mote (M3), the world’s smallest computer. Personally, I’d be a little scared to go near it. What if I accidentally inhaled it?

For many people, talking about “inhaling” a computer may seem a little absurd. That’s because, when most people think of computers, they think of laptops and PCs or big industrial machines capable of processing huge amounts of data. Most don’t think about a mote of dust, but that’s kind of what this computer looks like. And once you realize that this tiny computer is about the same size as a grain of rice, fears about accidentally inhaling it tend to make a bit more sense.

But being so small, can this really qualify as a computer? It seems so. “To be ‘complete,’ a computer system must have an input of data, the ability to process that data – meaning process and store it, make decisions about what to do next – and ultimately, the ability to output the data,” said David Blaauw, one of the faculty members who helped to make the Michigan Micro Mote.

So there we have it. The world’s smallest computer. The question now becomes, what is it capable of and how was it constructed?



They key to the construction, as it turns out, is in the battery. This is because, when making a computer, much of the difficulty is negotiating the size of the machine and the power that it needs. “As you shrink down in size,” said Blaauw, “the percentage of the system tends to be dominated by the battery. It’s actually not hard to make chips small, but it is hard to make them low power. We could have very small chips, but we’d still end up with really large batteries.”

That makes is rather difficult to have a truly tiny computer.

In order to overcome this obstacle, the team used a 1mm2 solar cell that producec 20nW. The standby power consumption is 2nA, which, if you are wondering, is roughly a million times less power than your average mobile phone uses while it is on standby. In the press release, the University notes that this is, “the comparative difference between the thickness of a sheet of paper and the length of a football field.” Moreover, the Phoenix processor, which is used in the device, is absolutely minuscule, at 915 x 915µm2

What’s more, thanks to the solar cell, the device can harvest enough energy under ambient light to run perpetually.

At present time, the computer is able to collect and transmit data up to 2 meters (the perfect size for use in a cubicle!). Now, that may not sound all that impressive, but remember that this is just the start. After all, the first cars didn’t exactly have a ton of fancy features. Consequently, the next step is to improve the operating distance. Blaauw said the next stage of the work is going to be getting the sensors to talk to one another and extending the range to about 20m.

So what does the computer do? It can collect data from a room in order to measure any motion or changes in pressure and temperature. This could have a number of different applications, such as industrial, medical, and environmental monitoring. It could even be used in non-commercial applications to help track heat etc. in individual homes.

http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/m...lest-computer/