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IBM’s announcement that they had produced the world’s smallest computer back in March raised a few eyebrows at the University of Michigan, home of the previous champion of tiny computing.

Now, the Michigan team has gone even smaller, with a device that measures just 0.3 mm to a side—dwarfed by a grain of rice.

The reason for the curiosity is that IBM’s claim calls for a re-examination of what constitutes a computer. Previous systems, including the 2x2x4mm Michigan Micro Mote, retain their programing and data even when they are not externally powered. Unplug a desktop computer, and its program and data are still there when it boots itself up once the power is back. These new microdevices, from IBM and now Michigan, lose all prior programming and data as soon as they lose power.

“We are not sure if they should be called computers or not. It’s more of a matter of opinion whether they have the minimum functionality required,” said David Blaauw, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, who led the development of the new system together with Dennis Sylvester, also a professor of ECE, and Jamie Phillips, an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor and professor of ECE.

In addition to the RAM and photovoltaics, the new computing devices have processors and wireless transmitters and receivers. Because they are too small to have conventional radio antennae, they receive and transmit data with visible light. A base station provides light for power and programming, and it receives the data.

One of the big challenges in making a computer about 1/10th the size of IBM’s was how to run at very low power when the system packaging had to be transparent. The light from the base station—and from the device’s own transmission LED—can induce currents in its tiny circuits.

“We basically had to invent new ways of approaching circuit design that would be equally low power but could also tolerate light,” Blaauw said.

For example, that meant exchanging diodes, which can act like tiny solar cells, for switched capacitors.

Another challenge was achieving high accuracy while running on low power, which makes many of the usual electrical signals (like charge, current and voltage) noisier. 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.

The system is very flexible and could be reimagined for a variety of purposes, but the team chose precision temperature measurements because of a need in oncology. Their longstanding collaborator, Gary Luker, a professor of radiology and biomedical engineering, wants to answer questions about temperature in tumors. Some studies suggest that tumors run hotter than normal tissue, but the data isn’t solid enough for confidence on the issue. Temperature may also help in evaluating cancer treatments.

We are using this temperature sensor to investigate variations in temperature within a tumor versus normal tissue and if we can use changes in temperature to determine success or failure of therapy.
Gary Luker, BME professor

“Since the temperature sensor is small and biocompatible, we can implant it into a mouse and cancer cells grow around it,” Luker said. “We are using this temperature sensor to investigate variations in temperature within a tumor versus normal tissue and if we can use changes in temperature to determine success or failure of therapy.”

Even as Luker’s experiments run, Blaauw, Sylvester and Phillips look forward to what purposes others will find for their latest microcomputing device.

“When we first made our millimeter system, we actually didn’t know exactly all the things it would be useful for. But once we published it, we started receiving dozens and dozens and dozens of inquiries,” Blaauw said.

And that device, the Michigan Micro Mote, may turn out to be the world’s smallest computer even still—depending on what the community decides are a computer’s minimum requirements.

This study is to be presented June 21 at the 2018 Symposia on VLSI Technology and Circuits. The paper is titled “A 0.04mm3 16nW Wireless and Batteryless Sensor System with Integrated Cortex-M0+ Processor and Optical Communication for Cellular Temperature Measurement.”

The work was done in collaboration with Mie Fujitsu Semiconductor Ltd. Japan and Fujitsu Electronics America Inc.

Beside a grain of rice

Interesting. However, not of any real importance to me--MY computer has to have a full-size tactile keyboard and a big (27") monitor, so the size of the processor is moot.

flashguy

quote:

Originally posted by flashguy:
Interesting. However, not of any real importance to me--MY computer has to have a full-size tactile keyboard and a big (27") monitor, so the size of the processor is moot.

flashguy

You do realize computers are used in other places than you home that might impact your life, right?

quote:

Originally posted by rusbro:
You do realize computers are used in other places than you home that might impact your life, right?

Oh, get out! Next you’ll be telling us that lasers could have more practical uses than popping toy balloons—and only blue ones at that.

(A long-ago article in Playboy said that’s all they would ever be good for; and yes, sometimes I did read the articles. )

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:
(A long-ago article in Playboy said that’s all they would ever be good for; and yes, sometimes I did read the articles. )

Well I'm glad to hear someone did, but I have to ask why?

quote:

Originally posted by Fenris:

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:
(A long-ago article in Playboy said that’s all they would ever be good for; and yes, sometimes I did read the articles. )

Well I'm glad to hear someone did, but I have to ask why?

How else would I have learned that lasers would never be anything more than a laboratory curiosity?

I remember when I went Back to college.
We had to wait in line on our own time to get into the computer room. The computer was about 8 ft long and 3 feet wide. We had to input data on a punch card.
We used computers where I worked years before that , that were a little smaller and data was transferred over telephone lines and put on a huge open reel tape that we printed out our data from.

We had an instructor in the tech school I went to that was an electrical engineer and also wrote customized programs for large companies.
He tried to get Bowling Green State university in Ohio to let him start teaching a microprocessor class. They told him that it would not ever be used for anything more than video games.. They sure missed the boat.

10 years ago, I tried to start a Robotics class where I taught and they told me, that it was definitely the wave of the future and one day they would get on board...

All they have to do is figure out how to implant it in a man's junk to allow him to become aroused on demand.

Instant billionaires.

quote:

The computer was about 8 ft long and 3 feet wide. We had to input data on a punch card.

When I was a kid one of my neighbors had access to one of these types of computers owned by McDonnell Douglas. He made me a punch card that I still have somewhere. I believe it was a Wang?

quote:

Originally posted by flesheatingvirus:
All they have to do is figure out how to implant it in a man's junk to allow him to become aroused on demand.

Instant billionaires.

How about one that allows a male to become unaroused on demand? I could have used that tech since I was about 14 years old, and would have occasionally made some better decisions.

quote:

Originally posted by a1abdj:

quote:

The computer was about 8 ft long and 3 feet wide. We had to input data on a punch card.

When I was a kid one of my neighbors had access to one of these types of computers owned by McDonnell Douglas. He made me a punch card that I still have somewhere. I believe it was a Wang?

Could have been a Wang. I worked as a customer engineer for IBM for several years, and worked on punch card equipment, mag tape storage devices, etc. Main frame computers were the size of several refrigerators and had substantially less processing power than the typical lap top/desk top computers of today. Anyone else remember that those early computers were big enough to walk into? Tube driven?

quote:

Originally posted by a1abdj:

quote:

The computer was about 8 ft long and 3 feet wide. We had to input data on a punch card.

When I was a kid one of my neighbors had access to one of these types of computers owned by McDonnell Douglas. He made me a punch card that I still have somewhere. I believe it was a Wang?

The first computer I learned to program was an IBM 650. It was about the size mentioned above and used punched cards as input and output.

And yes, rusbro, I am aware that computers are used in other places. I'm not convinced that most of those other uses really require micro-sized processors, though.

flashguy

quote:

Originally posted by flashguy:
Interesting. However, not of any real importance to me--MY computer has to have a full-size tactile keyboard and a big (27") monitor, so the size of the processor is moot.

Sometimes, "Because I can" isn't a good enough reason to do something. Besides, I suspect that in order to do enough computing to actually be useful, it would generate enough heat to destroy itself.

That said, these apparently pointless inventions can - sometimes - turn out to be critical first steps toward something that is genuinely beneficial.

How do we know that they didn't just create the world's largest penny?

quote:

Originally posted by sigcrazy7:

quote:

Originally posted by flesheatingvirus:
All they have to do is figure out how to implant it in a man's junk to allow him to become aroused on demand.

Instant billionaires.

How about one that allows a male to become unaroused on demand? I could have used that tech since I was about 14 years old, and would have occasionally made some better decisions.

Depends. On whose demand?