News CPU, RAM, Android - all on one SIM card

This could perhaps be used as a very-low-power state solution for mobile phones, the internal cpu and the one in the sim switching whenever the phone is used/unused?

 

Sounds good to me.

 

I think you're all missing the important question here.

If I stick one up my bum, can I turn myself into a mobile phone?







Getting back to the point however.... It's an impressive achievement, but has little immediate practical use. Firstly, this will never replace the traditional SIM card; SIM cards are far too universal and embedded into the market. It would take a major shift in the market to facilitate the move away from SIM cards, and I don't see that happening any time soon. SIM cards fulfill their role perfectly. It could certainly complement traditional SIM cards, but it would have to gain near-universal acceptance for it to be truly beneficial. As others have pointed out, it would be a little impractical though: upgrades to new devices or faster CPUs would negate much of the benefit that the technology promises. Upgrading your phone today is a relatively simple matter - providing you already have the ability to sync the data phone. All you have to do is buy a new phone, swap your traditional SIM card into the new device and sync your data to the new device.

 

The same could be achieved by unification of system configuration data storage formats and simply copying system images, cache and user data to flash memory integrated into simcard - and this could be done right now, no need to wait for the future. Just add a 16GB MicroSD card and redesign the connector in a way that would be compatible with every phone - adding a few pins next to the normal sim ones - such card would be compatible with other phones (being a standard simcard) and would give storage area to compatible phones to store system and data.

Integrating CPU and RAM into simcard is impressive, but an overkill and limiting. Smartphones evolve almost as quickly as PCs - first Andriod (G1) phone had an MSM7201A - a 528MHz CPU, while current ones have Snapdragons which are more than twice as fast (even before you factor in the faster GPU) and use less power - and that's just a 2 year difference between them. My private phone number (and simcard) is about five years old now, so go figure.