IBM Deals Up a Card-Size Computer

IBM Research has come out with a computer the size of a stack of index cards, according to a company statement.

The computer, which has an 800-MHz processor and 128MB of SDRAM, is 3 by 5 by 0.75 inches. It comes with a 10GB hard drive and a 3D graphics chip with 8MB of RAM.

IBM says it has no plans to market the device and is referring to it as a "radical experiment." The company says it built the device, known as the Meta Pad, "to research and develop technologies that will go into and help manage future computing devices." IBM may license the Meta Pad technologies to other companies, however.

"The Meta Pad project is part of our overall strategy in the pervasive space: building the technology inside computing devices, and building and managing the infrastructure that will simplify the unthinkable task of connecting billions of devices to billions of things," says Ken Ocheltree, lead IBM Research engineer on the project.

So Small

What makes the Meta Pad so small, IBM says, is that the company pulled the power supply and I/O connectors out of the computer core. This leaves only the processor, memory, data, and applications to be housed in the box. The components taken out of the machine become accessories.

Users will be expected to customize the machine to fit their needs, the company says. The device can be transformed into a handheld, desktop, laptop, tablet, or wearable computer "in seconds" without having to be rebooted.

The machine has been designed to work as a laptop inside an IBM ThinkPad shell or to plug into a docking station for use as an office PC. IBM says what makes the Meta Pad different from today's handhelds is that all the user's data and applications remain inside the core, eliminating the need for syncing.