Yesterday Freescale Semiconductors announced that they had created the world’s smallest ARM-powered chip. The Kinetis Kl02 is the size of two ants side by side – 1,9mm by 2mm. The chip is a full microcontroller unit, meaning this little thing sports a RAM, ROM,  aclock and I/O control unit. Basically it’s a tiny computer.

The KL02 has 32k of flash memory, 4k of RAM, a 32 bit processor, and peripherals like a 12-bit analog to digital converter and a low-power UART (computer hardware that translates data between parallel and serial forms) built into the chip.

So what kind of applications could this tiny computer have? Well, for one thing, it’s small enough to swallow, which has all sorts of implications for the development of modern medicine, and interaction with our environment.

Steve Tateosian, Global Product Marketing Manager of Freescale said:

We are working with our customers and partners on providing technology for their products that can be swallowed but we can’t really comment on unannounced products.

The thing is, microcontroller units aren’t new. You can find them in a host of everyday objects. And Freescale plans to have the chip at the “heart of a network of connected objects.” But if you could link those MCUs to the the MCU inside you – well, just picture a world where the objects around you are constantly sharing information with you, as you interact with them. Walked 10 000 steps today? The MCU in your shoes will let you know. Pipe’s leaking? The plumbing MCU in your house will let you know. All you need is an integrated display device, like a watch. Or hey, an iPhone app.

More than that, it’s easy to picture a new generation of technologies used to monitor your internal health or release medicines from inside your body.

Tateosian further commented:

We come across hundreds of [microcontrollers] embedded in the devices we use throughout the day. For example, you may come across them when your alarm wakes you up, you brush your teeth, make your coffee, unlock your car door, open your garage, put down the car window, pay the parking meter, tell the time on your watch, measure your heart rate, distance, and pace. While running you may listen to your music player with several controllers inside, including in the ear buds themselves.

It is, however, one thing to ingest these devices, but what happens when they are excreted? These tiny devices may build up in sewers and waste treatment plants. A problem for later perhaps.

The chip was developed as a response from a single customer and will be available for general retail. We’re betting it was Elon Musk who asked for it.

[Source: Wired]