The world's smallest ARM chip announced, designed for swallowable computers

ARM processors on that scale (2.17x2.32mm package) are commercially available today. The LPC1102LVUK from NXP for example. I don't really see why a chip that is only marginally smaller (1.9x2mm) and not available anywhere is getting this much attention.

These small developments are hugely exciting to me, primarily because they move us a little closer to the inevitable future of biological machines in our bodies.<p>Imagine little robots that crawl through your veins clearing out cholesterol, or hunting down cancer cells and signaling the immune system to attack them. We'll get there - probably sooner than most people think.

The article's title, "Freescale’s Insanely Tiny ARM Chip Will Put the Internet of Things Inside Your Body" is entirely misleading. Has the IoT term really been watered down this much from its technical definition? The chip in question lacks the power necessary to support a full IP stack, which is necessary for there to be integrated with other things in an Internet. Perhaps the chip is marketed with a communication application in mind, but having devices talk to each other does not make it an Internet of Things.

I feel that at this point the bottleneck is our ability to safely and reversibly enhance human bodies with all of the amazing technology we've created in the past few decades. Maybe this has always been the case, but it seems ever more so now.<p>I can certainly foresee future technology visionaries' frustration with having amazing nano-scale machines with which they want to experiment and push humanity's boundaries, but no way to guarantee that there won't be severe consequence to one's health on the long term.

The chip is small, but the USB connection is a b*tch.<p>Really, though, it gives rise to other potential dangers (not that that's a reason to not do it). Imagine a USB flash drive with a full computer behind it (but so small you'd not know it was there).<p>There are real uses that would benefit greatly from this, such as artificial eyes that could do whole image processing and send it on to the brain.

Interesting. Freescale's original press release didn't mention that the chip was designed for swallowable computers: <a href="http://media.freescale.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=196520&#38;p=irol-newsArticle&#38;ID=1789231" rel="nofollow">http://media.freescale.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=196520&#38;p=irol...</a>

Now, just strap a 2 pound battery to it and you'll be set.

Talk about Trusted Platforms, how do I add the FDA's signing cert to my immune system?