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American company Marvell has released chips for PC and laptop power bricks that will substantially cut down the amount of electricity required to run these machines.
The chips, a type of power factor correction (PFC) controller based around a digital signal processor, effectively determine the amount of power an application will need and optimise accordingly. They also try to keep peak current at the lowest level. Currently, inefficient computers can lose around half of the power through heat or in the AC-to-DC conversion process. Pick up that power supply connected to your laptop. Feel the burn! These chips will reduce it.
Optimising power cuts down on energy consumption, reducing your carbon footprint and, of course, the amount of greenhouse gasses. Other companies out there working to revamp the oft-overlooked power supply include iWatt, which has received money from Vantage Point Venture Partners.
Marvell has chips out now, but will crank into volume in the first quarter of 2008. That means we're likely to see them in PCs coming out towards the end of 2008.
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