@IBM has unveiled a computer so small it can slip through a salt shaker and could help prevent the $600bn a year trade in counterfeit drugs, gadgets, and cash. The company announced the new microcomputer on Monday at its Think conference and predicts it will play a key role in a #blockchain network designed to monitor fraud in global supply chains. The microscopic computer is one square millimeter in size and will act as a so-called 'crypto-anchor' in anti-fraud systems.  @IBM says the devices cost just 10 cents to manufacture and contain "several hundred thousand transistors, storage, power, and communications capabilities all packed into a footprint about the size of a grain of salt". IBM hasn't revealed specifications for the computer yet, but a spokesperson told @ZDNet that each of the devices is as powerful as an x86 chip from the 1990s. IBM researchers at the Thomas J Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, NY, will detail the computers in a forthcoming paper. In the meantime, IBM has offered a rough outline of the computer's schematics. The photo below shows 64 motherboards. Two of the world's smallest computers are the raised cubes in the top-left corner, which are mounted on the motherboard beneath.
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