Seven Japanese companies teaming up to develop solar powered CPU
An article in Forbes states that household names like Toshiba, Fujitsu, Canon, Panasonic, Hitachi, NEC and the lesser known Renesas are teaming to produce a CPU that will consume only 70% less energy without sacrificing performance. This is going to be a challenge for AMD and Intel. The project is being funded by the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. This move is not just to build another portable device of the future but the main idea behind is to lessen the dependence on foreign technologies. The entire project is has a budget of 3 to 4 billion Japanese Yen (US$ 32.5 million to 43.4 million) which looks like a very small amount to develop a technologically advanced chip like that. But the funding is the initial capital and likely to increase in the future which mean Intel and AMD has something to worry about unless they have something like this already under their sleeves. The project is aimed at making processors which can draw a small amount of power from solar panels for example mobile devices will never need connection to the mains for a recharge. Well we will have to wait and watch whether it is the mobile or the desktop PC that is going to get this high-end CPU.