NewNergy

Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) has built its reputation on printers, PCs and other tech gear. Now it's lending a hand to a much different industry: solar.

HP had a recent announcement that it will license technology it co-developed with Oregon State University to solar startup Xtreme Energetics, which hopes to launch its first products in two years. The HP technology will help grab the sun's rays for solar panels in a way that could generate electricity at twice the efficiency and half the cost of traditional solar panels, the companies say.

Labels: computers, efficiency, solar

Texas instruments announced a new line of microcontrollers today that it claims offers a breakthrough in performance while requiring a miniscule amount of power. The microcontrollers are from the MSP430F5xx family and offer up to 25MHz of performance with as 160 µA/MHz of power needed.

The controllers will enable portable devices to have longer battery life, additional memory, and on-chip peripherals. The peripherals include things like RF, USB, encryption and LCD interfaces. TI says that the microcontroller will be seen in devices like consumer electronics, home automation, and more.

More from here - Texas Instruments Introduces Breakthrough Microcontrollers

Labels: batteries, computers, conservation, electricity

OLPC eyes experimental battery for $100 laptop

Eric Lai, 30 Mar 2007

Earlier this week, an One Laptop Per Child's 100$ laptop program official said that the non-profit group plans to test batteries relying on cutting-edge Lithium Ion Phosphate technology in its third batch of beta computers. Also known as LiFePo4, the material is reportedly safer and less toxic than Lithium-Ion (Li-Ion) batteries used in most notebook PCs sold today. While LiFePo4 batteries don't store as much energy as Li-Ion models, they hold more than cheaper Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) batteries, which until now the OLPC had said it planned to use.

Read the full news story from here @ Computer World, Australia

Labels: batteries, computers