Monday, February 4, 2008

MIT, Texas Instruments develop power-miserly chip

Researchers at MIT and Texas Instruments Inc. have developed a new microchip design for portable electronics that could be 10 times more energy-efficient than present technology, according to MIT.

The school said the design could lead to cell phones, implantable medical devices and sensors that last longer when running from a battery. The chip works at a voltage level much lower than usual -- while most chips now operate at around 1 volt, the new design works at just 0.3 volts, according to the school.

Joyce Kwong, a graduate student in MIT's department of electrical engineering and computer science, worked on the project with professor of electrical engineering Anantha Chandrakasan, and EECS graduate students Yogesh Ramadass and Naveen Verma. Working with Texas Instruments, the team demonstrated the low-power design techniques on TI's MSP430 microcontroller. The work was conducted at the MIT Microsystems Technology Laboratories, which Chandrakasan directs.

MIT said the research was funded in part by a grant of an undisclosed amount from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.