Efficient PSUs
The Intel Developer Forum wouldn't be the same without at least one bench groaning under the weight of enough test equipment to debug the Tardis. Here is this year's top contender — and, as usual, it's in aid of a circuit that when finished will be most important for very portable systems. Intel is investigating how to make efficient power supplies that convert the single variable voltage that comes from a battery to the range of highly stable outputs that portable electronics requires.
Although such ideas are highly developed already, they become very inefficient at low power, typically wasting up to a third of the energy they demand just to perform the conversion process. Intel is working on power supplies that reconfigure themselves to operate with around ninety percent efficiency no matter how little or how much power is required — here seen as the small boards lost under the festoon of test leads.
