In less than a decade, that smartphone you’re holding could have 32 times the memory, 20 times the bandwidth, and a microprocessor core no bigger than a red blood cell, ARM CTO Mike Muller predicts.

ARM has already helped develop a prototype implantable device for monitoring eye-pressure in glaucoma patients that measures just 1 cubic millimeter,  he said. The device includes a microprocessor sandwiched between sensors at the top and a battery at the bottom.

Strip away those extra components, rearrange the transistors into a cube and apply the type of advanced manufacturing process expected in 2020, and you’d end up with a device that occupies about the same volume as a blood cell, Muller said.