Researchers from the University of Michigan have made notable progress toward mainstream millimeter-scale computing. The researchers at February's ISSCC (International Solid-State Circuits Conference) discussed a prototype implantable eye-pressure monitor for glaucoma patients that contains a complete millimeter-scale computing system. The researchers also discussed a compact radio that needs no tuning to find the right frequency and that they say could be a key enabler to organizing millimeter-scale systems into wireless sensor networks. The researchers believe that millimeter-scale systems could enable ubiquitous computing. They point to Bell's Law, which states that a new class of smaller, cheaper computers emerges approximately once per decade. With each new class, the volume shrinks by two orders of magnitude and the number of systems per person increases. Researchers note that the law has held from 1960s' mainframes through the 1980s' PCs, the 1990s' notebooks, and the new millennium's smartphones.
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