Your Basic $99 Supercomputer

What do you get when you combine a floating-point processor with a mesh network? The Adapteva Epiphany-IV microprocessor, apparently. This Boston-based startup composed of four refugees from Analog Devices has developed a brand new high-performance processor that should help smartphones and other mobile devices get even smarter.

Epiphany-IV comes in chip form or as licensed IP. You can also get an evaluation board for $99 (described below), which the company proudly boasts is the world’s most power-efficient supercomputer. Big words from such a little company. But from tiny acorns do mighty oak trees grow, as a certain British competitor can attest.