In less than a decade, that smartphone you’re holding could have
32 times the memory, 20 times the bandwidth and a microprocessor
core no bigger than a red blood cell, the CTO of chip design
company ARM said on Thursday. ARM has already helped develop a
prototype, implantable device for monitoring eye-pressure in
glaucoma patients that measures just 1 cubic millimeter, CTO
Mike Muller said at ARM’s TechCon conference in Silicon Valley
Thursday. The device includes a microprocessor sandwiched
between sensors at the top and a battery at the bottom. Strip
away those extra components, rearrange the transistors into a
cube and apply the type of advanced manufacturing process
expected in 2020, and you’d end up with a device that occupies
about the same volume as a blood cell, Muller said. ARM designs
the processor cores used in most of today’s smartphones and
tablets, and smaller cores are generally more energy efficient,
he said. That helps to extend battery life. That’s a good thing,
because battery technology is