Intel Has A Full-Powered Computer The Size Of A Golf Ball

APIntel CEO Brian Krzanich shows off the Edison processor.

One of the more impressive parts of Intel CEO Brian Krzanich's keynote address at CES, the giant consumer elecronics show in Las Vegas, was when he talked about the company's development of Edison, a PC processor small enought to fit into the palm of your hand.

Intel specializes in making small, powerful processors, of course.

But Krzanich described Edison as a "full, Pentium-class PC in the form-factor of an SD card. That's all the space you need," he said.

It runs Linux as its operating system, handles WiFi, has an internal platform that can handle an app store, uses ultra-low power, and comes with Wolfram Language and Mathematic on board, he said. It will launch in mid-2014.

Then Krzanich held the thing up so the audience could see it - it was a cube about the size of a golf ball.

He demonstrated the utility of Edison by talking about a company called Mimo, which developed a product called Nursery 2.0. With this device, parents can attach a small turtle-shaped device to the onesie of a sleeping baby. The turtle then transmits data about the baby's temperature, heart rate, and crying to the parent's coffee cups. On the outside of those cups, a display shows a green smiley face if the baby is sleeping comfortably, a or a red unhappy face if the child is too hot, too cold, or waking up.

If the baby wakes up with an elevated heart-rate, perhaps because it is hungry, then a smart, connected bottle warmer will begin heating a bottle of milk. The devices thus solve parents' angst and anticipate their (and the baby's) immediate needs.

Krzanich believes that Edison is so powerful and so small that it will enable a world of increasingly smart household objects. "With Edison we believe the opps are endless," he said.