IBM has unveiled the world’s smallest computer – Crypto Anchor at the company’s Think 2018 conference in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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 10 cents to manufacture and can monitor, analyse, communicate and even act on data.
The computer is just 1mm by 1mm but has the same processing power as the x86 chip that ran early Nineties IBM desktop computers.
It is designed to be embedded within price tags and product packaging, tracking and logging the movement of goods during shipping to enhance supply chain security.
It is a integration of several hundred thousand transistors into a footprint barely visible and is designed to help verify that a product has been handled properly throughout its long journey.
It is still at the prototype stage but later, will also serve to authenticate products bought online like foods, pharmaceuticals and luxury goods to ensure they have not been tampered with.
IBM’s Arvind Krishna explained,
“They’ll be used in tandem with blockchain’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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