IBM has unveiled a computer that's smaller than a grain of rock salt. It has the power of an x86 chip from 1990, according to Mashable, and its transistor count is in the "several hundred" thousand range. That's a far cry from the power of Watson or the company's quantum computing experiments, but you gotta start somewhere. Oh, right: it also works as a data source for blockchain. Meaning, it'll apparently sort provided data with AI and can detect fraud and pilfering, in addition to tracking shipments. The publication says that the machine will cost under $0.10 to manufacture, which gives credence to IBM's prediction that these types of computers will be embedded everywhere within the next five years. The one shown off at the firm's Think conference is a prototype, of course, and as such there's no clear release window.
Here are more details.
https://www.ibm.com/blogs/research/2018/03/ibm-research-5-in-5-2018/
