Intel dropping the wattage on CPUs
Aside from connectivity, power consumption is arguably one of the most limiting factors to mobile technology. After all, what use is a mobile computing device that can't power on or runs through a battery in just an hour or two? AMD and Via might have set off a "low voltage" war because Intel is now promising an Ultra-Low Voltage Core Duo in the second half of the year that will have a median voltage of under 1 Watt. This is fantastic news for any mobile device user; not just because you'll likely see the juice judiciously used in Intel powered devices, but I expect we'll continue to see battles amongst the chipmakers. By the end of they year I'm sure we'll see battery lives in next generation handhelds that are 30 to 50% than we see today.
(via Only UMPC)
-kct
Voltage is measured in, well, Volts. Wattage is measured in, well, Watts. You don't measure Voltage in Watts, but you use Voltage to calculate Watts. So if a device has a lower operational Voltage then the number of Watts consumed is reduced as well.
Posted by: Scotty | June 07, 2006 at 10:03 AM
Scotty... you are neglecting the fact that the required current could increase. ;-) In which case the voltage could drop but the current could increase and thus you can have the same or higher power consumption.
Trust me... I've seen this before at work. But lower voltage and lower power would be cool!!! :-D
Posted by: Mistergadgett | June 07, 2006 at 06:03 PM