With the advancement of technology, we have become accustomed to the fact that the devices that surround us every day and make our lives easier become more and more miniaturized. For many today it is not surprising to see the size of laptops; However, if we could bring a person from the past 40 or 50 years ago when computers were not personal but computers the size of a room or even larger and we showed him one of our cell phones, he would surely be stunned. Those computers of yesteryear were capable of doing complex math and calculations, but they could not compete with the simplest of today’s computers that fit even in the palm of the hand.
Computers in the 50s
The first hard disk of the IBM 305 RAMAC had a capacity of 3.75 MB
First hard drive
Today the most personal computers that we can access are our cell phones. Despite the fact that they have achieved a considerable reduction in size, this has not prevented computers in general from continuing to shrink, now moving to the famous wearables that are computers that we can “wear” and come in any form like sunglasses , smart sports shirts, wristwatches and much more. Which leads us to wonder how far will they shrink?
Smaller than a fly
The smallest computer in the world
It seems that this trend has no limits, and we can already see the first advances in the miniaturization of computers reaching incredible sizes even for us, such as the prototype computer created by a team from the University of Michigan Engineering, which has the amazing thing that would leave many with their mouths open (smaller than a fly) in the following video you can see an explanation about the operation of the smallest computer in the world.
This tiny computer is currently capable of working for some very specific applications, it has sensors that can capture light and use it to function and even send wireless communications, record pressure or temperature. Some of these little ones can even perform image processing and some other basic functions. The university team develops them to measure and specifically to fulfill particular tasks, for which we do not have a table of specifications available.
We are still far from seeing a device of these in our hands running an operating system; but they are definitely the first bases for the incredible miniaturization of computers, reaching the point that we can lose them if they fall out of our hands. What do you think? Would you like to have a computer this tiny one day?
