Intel Napa Notebooks to Operate for 8 Hours with Matsushita Battery
 

Intel Corp. and Matsushita Battery Industrial announced at Intel Developer Forum that they have teamed up to create technologies that allow notebooks to work on battery power for eight hours, which is a typical length of a workday. First notebooks featuring Matsushita’s innovative batteries and Intel’s technologies that reduce power consumption are expected to become available as early as in mid-2006.

“Intel announced an agreement with Matsushita Battery Industrial (MBI) to jointly develop more powerful battery technology to support the vision for “all-day computing” for future Intel Centrino Mobile Technology-based platforms,” a statement by Intel Corp. claims.

Matsushita Battery has been developing a next-generation lithium-ion battery that will enable all day computing. The company plans to release a 2.9Ah battery, about 30% higher in capacity than today’s mainstream batteries, in April 2006, JCN news-agency reports.

Intel said at IDF in September, 2004, it was working with its industry partners to achieve 8-hour battery life of a typical notebook by 2010. The platform approach to tackle the battery life issue includes minimizing consumption of key-system components, such as CPU, HDD, chipset, WLAN adapter and display, as well as improving batteries. It is now expected that notebooks with 8-hour battery life are set to emerge already in 2006.

Intel last year introduced the Intel Battery Life Optimization Program to help resolve some of the power management and platform configuration hurdles to achieving all-day battery life. The company will work with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and original design manufacturers (ODMs) to provide technical guidance on power delivery and power management architecture. Intel will also develop guidelines for optimizing power saving features using Intel hardware and software ingredients that OEMs/ODMs can design-in for greater battery life gains

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