Comment by lxgr
2 hours ago
> A fully working computer that is literally the size of a credit card.
Nit: A (chip) credit card is already a fully working computer :)
2 hours ago
> A fully working computer that is literally the size of a credit card.
Nit: A (chip) credit card is already a fully working computer :)
Only if it is inside a specially designed radio field and with no independent IO. Feels like a battery and IO justify the 'fully working' differentiation.
Interesting philosophical question: Is a tower PC that's not plugged into anything (neither power nor a keyboard or monitor) a computer? Does computation happen if nobody can perceive it? And is a computer a computer even between two CPU cycles?
> no independent IO
I would challenge that! How is a smartcard different from a server in a qualitative sense? Both get all their I/O over the network.
Some cards even have a display, fingerprint reader, or can blink an LED (the latter unfortunately only indiscriminately when powered up, not in response to any computation, I'm afraid).
Is a bare SoC a computer? You can poke the pins to provide power and I/O.
The interesting thing about this project is that this computer can function independently within a credit card sized space.
I've never heard a definition of a computer to include its power source.
IO is of course required.