The hardware realm’s race to the microscopic continues, as General Micro Systems debuts the world’s smallest single-board computer (SBC). Codenamed Spider, the whole computer takes up less space than a credit card, and consumes a scant 4 watts of power when running at full tilt. Given the computer’s wee size, its specs are damn impressive: 2 Ethernet ports, 256 Mbytes of DDR SDRAM, and 256 kbytes of L2 cache. (Layman’s translation: A lot better than the Dell you bought in 2001.) It’s a developers’ plaything, sure, but it’s bound to wind up in your mobile handset sooner or later. True geeks can order their very own Spider, starting at $300 — if you’re willing to order in bulk.
