IBM's mostly been busy researching phase transition circuitry and quantum computers for the military, while selling products to the industrial sector. However, they've been making noises about putting Intel to shame and taking over the cpu processor business with their new ASIC technologies. My guess, that's what this tiny 10 cent chip is, a simple ASIC they've managed to shrink on the cheap about as far as Moore's Law will easily allow them to do. If they can conquer the internet-of-things, IoT, they can squeeze Intel from the ground up. Theoretically, an fpga asic is a thousand times more efficient while, using a different type of circuitry altogether, such chips can be made 100,000x more efficient than standard chips used today. They make ARM chips look wimpy.
