ARM working on world's largest and smallest computers

SANTA CLARA: ARM's chief technology officer has been detailing the chip company's work on the world's biggest and smallest computer systems.

Mike Muller said that ARM chips are being used in what could be considered the world's largest computer, a one square kilometre sensing network called the IceCube Neutrino Observatory which is being drilled into the Antarctic ice.

The cores are drilled using hot water, and then 90 sensors using ARM chips are lowered into each hole.

"We are treating this as a single computer as all the data comes back to a single screen point," Muller said.

The system is designed to hunt for neutrinos, particles that travel at near light speed emitted from suns and cosmic rays. The detectors pick up a blue light, called Cherenkov radiation, that occurs when a neutrino strikes one of the water atoms in the ice.

AMD is also working on designs for the smallest chips in the world. Muller explained that he had been inspired by a presentation suggesting that, once chip sizes fall to 2mm x 2mm, they could be mixed with paint and embedded in walls.

There are some problems with this idea, he acknowledged, but ARM is working on a number of designs that could be small enough to be used in building materials or the human body.

In the former case such chips have already been mooted to check continuously on building integrity, but implantable chips, known as wetware, involve a leap of imagination.

"I started thinking about what our children would consider normal that horrifies us today," said Muller. "Chopping themselves up to install electronics was an obvious choice."

Muller showed off designs for a combined pressure sensor, chip, solar cell and antenna that is one cubic millimetre in size, which is the largest object eye surgeons are willing to implant in an eye.

The sensor could be used to monitor the progress of illnesses like glaucoma, and to alert doctors remotely if problems get worse.