5mo ago

World's smallest microcontroller looks like I could easily accidentally inhale it but packs a genuine 32-bit Arm CPU

www.pcgamer.com

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5mo ago

World's smallest microcontroller looks like I could easily accidentally inhale it but packs a genuine 32-bit Arm CPU

www.pcgamer.com /hardware/processors/worlds-smallest-microcontroller-looks-like-i-could-easily-accidentally-inhale-it-but-packs-a-genuine-32-bit-arm-cpu/

Technology @lemmy.ml

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5mo ago

World's smallest microcontroller looks like I could easily accidentally inhale it but packs a genuine 32-bit Arm CPU

www.pcgamer.com /hardware/processors/worlds-smallest-microcontroller-looks-like-i-could-easily-accidentally-inhale-it-but-packs-a-genuine-32-bit-arm-cpu/

52 comments

The future: we have replaced the microplastic in our blood with microcontrollers
- And each of them is powerful enough to run Doom
  
  You had me at "run Doom".
  
  So you are saying once it gets into your bloodstream you are doomed?
- I live in Denmark, work in a location with about 120 people. Two of them believe this, and there is a third one who's a massive Trump fan. I try to not interact with them.
  
  I'm sure they have interesting things to say about the covid vaccines.
- And the microcontrollers to control the microplastics.
  
  And the microcontrollers will be charged by mitochondria.
  
  Would you like gray goo with that?
- At what point do we become Borg
- Nanomachines, son
- 32-bit processor, the powerhouse of the cell
- and it has started already! didn't you hear about the covid vaccine!!!
  
  You guys are so out of the loop! RFK Jr has known about this and has been speaking about it since at least 2001 when he had that brain worm removed.
In broad terms, that seems to put it about on par with an Intel 386 chip from 1985
At 24 MHz, it's actually about 4-6 times faster than a full fledged 33 MHz i80386DX with 10 times as many transistors back in the day.
It's absolutely insane that i386 remained the standard with its inferior high latency design.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acorn_Archimedes
exhibiting BASIC language performance ten times faster than a newly introduced 80386-based computer
That was an 8MHz Arm system, and it was commonly recognized as being clearly faster than a 33MHz i80386DX!
In fact the 8036 was so inefficient at 33MHz it couldn't even beat the speed of a 16 MHz 80286 on 16 bit code!!
Mips, Alpha, Motorola, Sparc and finally Arm were all better, but they weren't backed by IBM, and the availability of clones made the PC relatively cheap. But basically everything else was better than Intel.
Unfortunately Arm also lacked a math co-processor, so for tasks that were heavy on FP calculations, an i386 with co-processor was superior.
Also Arm was unable to sell them cheap enough to capture at least a niche market. (Apart from education in UK)
And for the hobbyist an Amiga was way cheaper, and had powerful graphics and sound chips.
- Thank you. This kind of information was exactly what I wanted in the comments.
  As a person who started on a 286 this seems blazing fast. Just wish it had ports for power, HDMI and USB
  
  HDMI
  I don't believe it has enough RAM for any real video, among other things.
"It does in fact run Doom", he said before he snorted a line of his new favorite drug - a dark grey line of Megaflops.
Wear your N95 around the next gen SoCs. We don't know the effects of inhaling them (yet)
This is making the Republicans so nervous.
- Not in the forehead! Not in the forehead!
Nanobots of 90's sci-fi, here we finally come!
- I want those fuckers powering little submarines that fight cancer cells right now - but realistically speaking, these microcontrollers would need to be at least one order two order of magnitude smaller for that, no?
  
  Oh, absolutely. I just mean that we appear to be headed in that direction.
  
  I can guarantee you they wouldn't (solely) be used for pur benefit
32-bit just won't die!
- I was just thinking that. XD
Just nuts that my 386 was to big to take on my pushy as a kid and now the same thing would get lost in my nose hairs
- Maybe you just didn't have long enough nose hair as a kid
Looks like a micro Lego. Hell, it is a micro Lego.
How would you ever actually practically use this
- Same way you would in any other microcontroller application, but smaller, so the whole device can be smaller.
  Get small enough and we can really have those bloodstream robots.
- Maybe an actual useful smart ring?
- In small things. Probably not very feasible for hobby projects unless you can get it soldered on when the PCB is built.
  
  BGA, like in the photo, isn't the only option. There are options only slightly larger with hand-solderable packages (if you're good at soldering)
- I make specialty vehicle electronics. My immediate thought was very small and cheap sensors. Similar to tire pressure monitoring but wired with CAN or something similar.
- fly-sized spy drone
- You could use it as the logic board for a micro drone, something the size of a dime perhaps. Or other applications where weight or space are extremely limited. Another example might be a medical implant of some sort, this is small enough that it could be a part of a device that is meant to be placed inside an artery, or an eyeball, or an ear canal.
- Wrist watch.
https://xkcd.com/691/
I thought this headline was a Clinton joke.
This article was written by someone who only knows buzz words. They said it's "not just the silicon(edited from silicone), but the entire microcontroller" what do they think processors have other than silicone?
Edit: silicone->silicon
- They're referencing the package as a whole, plastic casing, gold internal wiring, etc. and the silicon die in the center of it all.
  
  This still makes no sense, because the gold wiring is a huge cost. Why dafuq wouldn't current manufacturing encourage smaller packages? And there has been a push to make things thinner since ad memorium, so why wouldn't they have made the die slimmer?
  Edit: good to know the hive mind still exists.

52 comments