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Lower Power Computer Chip
Posted On Tuesday, February 05, 2008
You've all experienced cell phone batteries and I don't need to tell you to go and plugin your MP3 player so that you can enjoy some more music tomorrow.
Here's some music to your ears. MIT and Texas Instrument engineers have developed a chip for
portable electronics that is up to 10 times more energy-efficient than
present technology, making it last longer on a single battery charge.
In the coming years, it could be used to make cell phones, iPods,
BlackBerry devices and other personal electronics last longer on less
of a charge, saving energy and headaches. In medical devices, the chips
might run on "ambient energy" provided by the heat and movement of the
body.
The design is being presented today at the International Solid-State
Circuits Conference in San Francisco by Joyce Kwong, a graduate student
in MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
The circuit works at a voltage of about one-third of typical chip.
The "ultra low power" design was demonstrated on Texas Instrument's
MSP430, a microcontroller, but using the chip in other devices would
require a re-wiring of other circuits to run on the lower voltage. It
could be five years before any product on the market includes this
technology.
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