Intel demos mobile chip so frugal it can be powered by wine, still recognize you by the way you walk

Posted: 16 Sep 2013, 06:45, by Daniel P.

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Intel demos mobile chip so frugal it can be powered by wine, still recognize you by the way you walk

Mobile processors have reached the point where they are so powerful that there's rarely an app or task that uses their full capacity, not to mention the 64-bit A7's prowess that will go largely underutilized for now. The next step, however, are the super-frugal dedicated processors of the future that can power supplementary always-on endeavors like speech recognition or movement sensitivity. Motorola used a dedicated low-power chip for the speech telling abilities in its X8 chipset, while Apple made a separate M7 one for the always-on motion sensing tasks, for instance.

Such low-power processors will be needed a lot more in the future, but how little energy can they consume? Very, it turned out at Intel's Developer Forum, as the maker just demoed a chip that got powered entirely by... wine. That's right, they plunked two electrodes in a glass of red, and the chemical reaction with the acetic acid created current, which then flew to the processor, energizing it for simple tasks that will be needed on a 24/7 basis in our always-on mobile devices.

Intel has been getting very good at lowering the power draw of its chipsets lately, and its renewed focus on mobile means only good things for us users going forward. The chip maker also demonstrated biometric ID technology that goes beyond passwords, like Apple did with Touch ID in the iPhone 5s, and recognizes you by your voice characteristics, or even by the way you walk, using accelerometers and such, so plenty of usage for those low-power dedicated processors in the not so distant future, it seems.

via TheRegister

13 Comments

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posted on 16 Sep 2013, 06:51 3

1. noler (Posts: 324; Member since: 19 Aug 2013)

"I can't dance, I can't talk.
Only thing about me is the way I walk."

posted on 16 Sep 2013, 07:17 8

2. JewBakaUCFG (Posts: 176; Member since: 25 Sep 2012)

Annnnnnnnnd now it's in my head x-(

posted on 16 Sep 2013, 07:20 2

3. JewBakaUCFG (Posts: 176; Member since: 25 Sep 2012)

Now that's a PORTable phone processor.

posted on 16 Sep 2013, 14:31

9. apple4never (Posts: 1064; Member since: 08 May 2013)

dude.........wtf ?

posted on 16 Sep 2013, 17:24

10. timepilot84 (Posts: 113; Member since: 16 Aug 2012)

Hey dummy, it's a pun, that's wtf.

posted on 17 Sep 2013, 15:30

13. JewBakaUCFG (Posts: 176; Member since: 25 Sep 2012)

It's a really bad pun :-p But I could not resist.

posted on 17 Sep 2013, 04:54

12. reckless562 (banned) (Posts: 1153; Member since: 09 Sep 2013)

LOOOLOLLL

posted on 16 Sep 2013, 08:10

4. itsdeepak4u2000 (Posts: 3718; Member since: 03 Nov 2012)

Cool...

posted on 16 Sep 2013, 08:31 2

5. Shatter (Posts: 2036; Member since: 29 May 2013)

Bye arm.

posted on 16 Sep 2013, 09:04

6. ArtSim98 (Posts: 3535; Member since: 21 Dec 2012)

Yeah! Now my mum has a reason to by me alcohol! (joke, not sure if funny)

posted on 16 Sep 2013, 10:19

7. 7thspaceman (Posts: 1580; Member since: 14 Feb 2011)

Intel is a Powerful company I believe they can make very low power chips if they put their minds to it.but how will they cost. One of the reasons Windows 8 and 8.1 tablets sales may lag behind Apple ipads and Android tablets is because of the cost of Intel Haswell i5 and i7 is so high. These 2 chips are the best needed to smoothly run Windows 8 or 8.1 on Tablets or Desktop PC's. the true success of Windows 8.1 tablets depends upon the cost of the Intel /Amd x86 chips that run them. even a cheap windows 8.1 8 inch tablets costs 300 dollars. the cost of Intel/AMD x86 have to go way down to compete with ARMS CPU chips

posted on 16 Sep 2013, 12:11

8. ZeroCide (Posts: 785; Member since: 09 Jan 2013)

x86 FTW!

posted on 17 Sep 2013, 00:19

11. woodshop20 (Posts: 459; Member since: 14 Sep 2013)

"but how little energy can they consume? Very, it turned out at Intel's Developer Forum"

What, very? More power hungry than AMD's new 220W desktop CPUs? Typo there I think...