Python in The Economist

[Frank Millman]

The latest Technology Quarterly in The Economist is about "The Internet 
Of Things".

Python gets a mention in an article on "How to build a disposable 
microchip". It is quite a long article, so here are the relevant extracts.

"The goal is to produce a robust, bendable, mass-producible computer, 
complete with sensors and the ability to communicate with the outside 
world, for less than $0.01 apiece. A prototype version, shown off at 
Arm's headquarters in Cambridge, looks like a stiffer-than-usual piece 
of tape festooned with circuit traces."

"The chip uses a simple form of machine learning called a Bayesian 
classifier. Flexibility of use was sacrificed: to keep thinks as cheap 
and simple as possible the algorithm is etched directly into the 
plastic, meaning the chips are not reprogrammable."

"Since chip design is expensive, and chip designers scarce, he and his 
team have been working on software tools to simplify that task. The idea 
is to describe a new algorithm in Python, a widely used programming 
language, and then have software turn it into a circuit diagram that can 
be fed into Pragmatic's chipmaking machines. That approach has attracted 
interest from DARPA ..."

Hope this is of interest.

Frank Millman