Power consumption in mobile phones could be cut by up to 100 times using a radical new approach. A new type of chip which replaces digital computation with analogue is set to improve performance and significantly reduce the size and cost.
The latest mobile phones are becoming multimedia computers with higher than ever demands on batteries. Benjamin Vigoda, research scientist at Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories in Cambridge, MA, believes the solution may come from a novel approach: replacing the combination of analogue and digital circuitry used today with what he calls “analogue logic.”
A prototype chip is undergoing testing for noise and power consumption. If the tests are successful the chip could be in use by 2010.
Mobile phones use analogue components for handling frequencies that are too high for digital processors to handle. The digital components are used for computation and general purpose logic gates.
The new chips will use analogue devices for all most of the circuitry reducing the need for any digital to analogue switching and therefore saving space and power. Analogue circuits are 1000 times more efficient than their digital equivalent.
If the approach is a success we could see mobile devices with much longer battery lives and far more efficient power consumption. With more functions being built into modern phones this chip can’t arrive soon enough for the major manufacturers.
