University of Michigan researchers have created the world’s smallest computer, or a device that measures just 0.3 mm and is so small that it’s dwarfed by a grain of rice. These new computing devices not only have RAM and photovoltaics, but processors, wireless transmitters as well as receivers. Since they’re too small to have a radio antennae, they receive and transmit data with visible light, while a base station provides light for power, programming, and receiving the data. Continue reading for a video and more information.
“Designed as a precision temperature sensor, the new device converts temperatures into time intervals, defined with electronic pulses. The intervals are measured on-chip against a steady time interval sent by the base station and then converted into a temperature. As a result, the computer can report temperatures in minuscule regions – such as a cluster of cells – with an error of about 0.1 degrees Celsius,” reports Twisted Sifter.
