low-power

Metrics for Intel's power-frugal Ivy Bridge chips questioned

The yardstick used for Intel's new power-frugal chips is being questioned in article posted by Ars Technica.

The article, titled "Power saving through marketing: Intel's '7 watt' Ivy Bridge CPUs," asserts that Intel may have been over-aggressive with its power-efficiency claims.

More specifically, the 7-watt Ivy Bridge processors Intel announced on Monday at CES are actually specified by Intel on its site as 13 watts, the article says.

"The 7-watt number advertised during Intel's keynote yesterday is actually from a new metric, 'scenario design power' (SDP), which purports to measure how much power the … Read more

Intel microserver chips dial down the power

Intel is preparing to ship two low-powered Xeon processors for the high-density microserver market, and will deliver similar chips based on its Sandy Bridge and Atom architectures within the next two years.

The additions to the Xeon E3-1200 family, the E3-1260L and E3-1220L, along with the Sandy Bridge and Atom additions, have been designed for microservers, Intel announced at a press event yesterday. A microserver comprises multiple small, one-socket servers sharing the same chassis to provide high-processing density in a relatively small amount of space.

The new Xeons have a thermal design power (TDP) rating of between 20W and 45W … Read more

ARM experiments with server chip design

ARM is running one of its Web sites on a cluster of ARM-based chips, part of a handful of experiments to test out the viability of using its chip architecture in servers.

The Cambridge, England-based company does not market designs for server processors, concentrating its efforts instead on chips for the mobile phone market--where it dominates--and on early forays into smartbooks and tablets. However, ARM is working on low-powered server chips in response to customer demand, marketing chief Ian Drew told ZDNet UK.

"We've been doing some testing over the past year or so," Drew said on … Read more

Bluetooth 4.0 goes low-power for sensors

A new version of Bluetooth has been revealed by the industry group behind the wireless technology, which is targeting low-energy applications in the health care, fitness, and security markets.

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group announced the adoption of Bluetooth Core Specification version 4.0 on Thursday. The new iteration follows the speed-centric version 3.0 of the Bluetooth specification by just 10 months, but the two versions are intended for different use cases.

"With today's announcement, the race is on for product designers to be the first to market," Bluetooth SIG chief Michael Foley said in a … Read more

Venture firm picks up Transmeta chip patents

Updated at 10:45 p.m. PST with additional information about Intellectual Ventures

Intellectual Ventures has acquired the patent portfolio of Transmeta, an erstwhile supplier of low-power Intel-compatible x86 processors.

Intellectual Venture Funding, an affiliate of Intellectual Ventures, has picked up 140 U.S. patents and additional pending patent applications owned by Transmeta, which was acquired by privately held Novafora in November of last year.

The Transmeta technology will be used "through two distinct routes," according to an Intellectual Ventures' statement. Novafora will improve its own proprietary designs by using some of the technologies invented by Transmeta. And … Read more

Intel ships low-power chips for servers

Intel is shipping new server processors that consume as little as 12.5 watts per core.

Cumulatively, the racks and racks of servers in large data centers can require power rivaling that consumed by entire city blocks. So, getting power consumption as low as possible while delivering adequate performance has become a delicate balancing act for Intel and Advanced Micro Devices.

New additions to the Xeon 5000 Series include the L5430 and X5270 processors, the fastest of which boasts a clock speed of 3.5GHz, Intel said.

The low-voltage L5430 uses only 50 watts of power or just 12.5 … Read more

Low power is high on Intel forum agenda

When the Intel Developer Forum kicks off Tuesday in San Francisco, the theme of low power will be high on the agenda of topics.

The headliner at IDF this year is indisputably the upcoming "Nehalem" Core i7 processor. Though the new microarchitecture is replete with esoteric technologies like QuickPath (for faster chip-to-chip communication) and on-chip memory controllers--things that end users can't readily relate to--better power efficiency is something every consumer gets because it results in better battery life.

"(Nehalem) is pretty subtle because it's a change in microarchitecture. A lot of the changes aren't … Read more

Transmeta licenses low-power tech to Nvidia

Update at 10:40 a.m. with background about why Nvidia licensed Transmeta's technology

Transmeta has licensed its LongRun and low-power chip technologies to graphics chip giant Nvidia for a one-time fee of $25 million. Nvidia is hoping tackle power consumption issues that dog its high-performance chips.

Transmeta, an erstwhile chip vendor turned intellectual property supplier, said Nvidia was granted a nonexclusive license to Transmeta's Long Run and LongRun2 technologies "and other intellectual property for use in connection with Nvidia products."

The agreement grants to Nvidia a license to all of Transmeta's patents and patent … Read more

'Atom' means Intel is serious about smallness

The new moniker "Atom" sets in marketing stone the Intel brand for small devices. I'll skip the banalities about Atom silicon being crucial for Intel's future and just pose a question: Can Intel spur innovation in ultrasmall devices the way it has in the PC and server industry?

I won't hazard any rash predictions but will make a few observations about the current landscape.

First, a little recent history. The ultramobile PC (UMPC) based on Intel's first-generation processor (the A110) for small devices has not exactly been the market sensation that the iPhone has. … Read more

Low Power Radio Bill Introduced in Congress

Early this morning, Free Press announced the introduction of a new bill in both the House and Senate that would remedy legislation from 2000 which prevented low power FM stations from obtaining licensing in major media markets. The Local Community Radio Act of 2007 has achieved bi-partisan support and is sponsored by Reps. Mike Doyle (D-Penn.) and Lee Terry (R-Neb.) in the House, and Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) in the Senate.

With media consolidation at an all-time high and Clear Channel dominating the airwaves, the vital role of local radio programming is being eroded away. Five years ago a train derailed in Minot, North Dakota and thousands of gallons of dangerous chemicals were released into the environment; many people were injured and one person died. The commercial radio stations in the area were all owned by Clear Channel and none of them carried any advisories about the disaster. Low powered FM stations will ensure that local information will be readily accessible amongst a landscape of national stations.