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The first high-yield, sub-penny plastic processor

spectrum.ieee.org

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Re: The first high-yield, sub-penny plastic processor

#51

Post by chillingeffect »

Zenst wrote: post #42

I kind of feel it is going to end up being used in food packaging, marketed along the lines of smart-packaging. Not sure how well the sensor market is and if some could be built in if not already, but it sure does seem to be that such cheap plastic chips only lean themselves being a cheap disposable item. What value they will add, may well vary, but a few pennies upon many items they would be targeting, well those it…

There will be a mixture of beneficial and wasteful uses. Ppl will say the good outweighs the bad bc they don't know how to measure environmental and personal health outcomes. Ppl who question it will be villified and called luddites for besmirching the godly triology of Innovation, Science, and Dopamine. But the true crazies will be the ones connecting it to defending our country and saving children.

Re: The first high-yield, sub-penny plastic processor

#52

Post by chillingeffect »

m12k wrote: post #39

Does anyone have a good idea for use cases for these? It seems a lot of use cases for "small, cheap electronics" are already covered by RFID, where you keep the processing "smarts" in the device that reads the RFID. So when do you need actual computation to take part on each tiny chip? Some kind of "smart dust" mesh network? (assuming you can pair these chips with an antenna and power source)

Sure... replace any barcode with one and it can remember its history of scanning.

Re: The first high-yield, sub-penny plastic processor

#53

Post by ClumsyPilot »

Zenst wrote: post #42

I kind of feel it is going to end up being used in food packaging, marketed along the lines of smart-packaging. Not sure how well the sensor market is and if some could be built in if not already, but it sure does seem to be that such cheap plastic chips only lean themselves being a cheap disposable item. What value they will add, may well vary, but a few pennies upon many items they would be targeting, well those it…

Now they can put digital cooking for tracking onto physical cookies you buy.

Hopefully just the packaging but i would not be surprised if someone puts them inside clothing or food.

Re: The first high-yield, sub-penny plastic processor

#56

Post by MisterTea »

sydthrowaway wrote: post #55

Asking the dumb question. How does plastic conduct electricity...

From the article: "The processors his team built were made using the flexible thin-film semiconductor indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO), which can be built on plastic and continues to work even when bent around a radius of millimeters."

It's not the plastic that conducts, instead it is the foundation which the conducting material is built upon.

Re: The first high-yield, sub-penny plastic processor

#57

Post by smaudet »

lifeisstillgood wrote: post #48

I love the teaching potential here - program this 4 or 8 bit processor. They are so cheap you can give them to pupils in volume that you don't care how they experiment with them, and there is potential that they are simple enough to literally fit in your head. More of these please - the opportunities must be there

I'm curious what they will be able to hook up to one, and how it will be programmed - if you add a tiny amount of flash this could definitely be interesting, maybe have a dollar processor though.

The use cases for a student are more difficult to imagine - turn a light on an IO port is fun and somewhat education but you will need to do something more informative, like generate a coded signal, i.e. simulate an RFID chip (what I presume the commercial goal is here as well), but then vary based on some input(s)?

Its the same issue as with the current crop of low-cost computers - Raspberry Pi is great, but its most useful applications are due to its ethernet port and ability to drive a display, both of which drive up the price and board size.

Re: The first high-yield, sub-penny plastic processor

#58

Post by smaudet »

m12k wrote: post #39

Does anyone have a good idea for use cases for these? It seems a lot of use cases for "small, cheap electronics" are already covered by RFID, where you keep the processing "smarts" in the device that reads the RFID. So when do you need actual computation to take part on each tiny chip? Some kind of "smart dust" mesh network? (assuming you can pair these chips with an antenna and power source)

Just brainstorming, if the chip is large enough you could just plop a reader down on it.... not as convenient as RFID but then you could sell a reader which reads info off of bananas, e.g.

Why the consumer would want to read info off of a banana, great question, but.

Re: The first high-yield, sub-penny plastic processor

#59

Post by squarefoot »

smaudet wrote: post #58
m12k wrote: post #39

Does anyone have a good idea for use cases for these? It seems a lot of use cases for "small, cheap electronics" are already covered by RFID, where you keep the processing "smarts" in the device that reads the RFID. So when do you need actual computation to take part on each tiny chip? Some kind of "smart dust" mesh network? (assuming you can pair these chips with an antenna and power source)

Just brainstorming, if the chip is large enough you could just plop a reader down on it.... not as convenient as RFID but then you could sell a reader which reads info off of bananas, e.g. Why the consumer would want to read info off of a banana, great question, but.

You had me chuckle:) There are however serious uses for very cheap sensors with brains, for example in food boxes to check that none of the packages was exposed to critical temperature unintentionally, or even prevent frauds in those places where they relabel expired food as fresh: a small chip that senses everything including air pressure besides carrying the manufacturing date and duration information,could also signal that the contents are non edible as soon as it detects that the vacuum bag has been tampered with.

Re: The first high-yield, sub-penny plastic processor

#60

Post by stevenjgarner »

benj111 wrote: post #27
ziftface wrote: post #13

Why would anyone actively work towards "ubiquitous electronics"? That sounds like a nightmare.

Do we not have ubiquitous electronics already? What hasn't got electronics shoved it that could meaningfully use them?

Countless Ray Kurzweilian microscopically small computers the size of blood cells a billion times more powerful per dollar in 25 years coursing through your circulatory system maintaining perfect health and interfacing with your nervous system.
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