Researchers have developed a microprocessor built on high-performance plastic rather than silicon—and they say it could enable smarter food labels and supply chain management.
Christopher Intagliata: Microchips are everywhere: they’re in our computers and smartphones, of course, but also TVs, thermostats, fridges, washing machines, cars. That ever growing constellation of devices embedded with computer brains and Internet connectivity is known as the “Internet of Things.”
Lots of other stuff, though, like a carton of milk, doesn’t have a microchip or smart sensor—not to say that it couldn’t.
John Biggs: For example, imagine smart labels on food products that could alter their use-by date, depending on how they've been handled.
Intagliata: John Biggs is a distinguished engineer at the semiconductor company Arm. He and a team of researchers have now developed a proof-of-concept flexible chip that could be used for applications like outfitting a milk jug with computer smarts. And they say the chip is 12 times more complex than previous attempts. They describe it in a recent issue of the journal Nature. [John Biggs et al., A natively flexible 32-bit Arm microprocessor]
Continue reading: https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/flexible-microprocessor-could-enable-an-internet-of-everything/
Christopher Intagliata: Microchips are everywhere: they’re in our computers and smartphones, of course, but also TVs, thermostats, fridges, washing machines, cars. That ever growing constellation of devices embedded with computer brains and Internet connectivity is known as the “Internet of Things.”
Lots of other stuff, though, like a carton of milk, doesn’t have a microchip or smart sensor—not to say that it couldn’t.
John Biggs: For example, imagine smart labels on food products that could alter their use-by date, depending on how they've been handled.
Intagliata: John Biggs is a distinguished engineer at the semiconductor company Arm. He and a team of researchers have now developed a proof-of-concept flexible chip that could be used for applications like outfitting a milk jug with computer smarts. And they say the chip is 12 times more complex than previous attempts. They describe it in a recent issue of the journal Nature. [John Biggs et al., A natively flexible 32-bit Arm microprocessor]
Continue reading: https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/flexible-microprocessor-could-enable-an-internet-of-everything/
