New display technology could boost laptop battery life

Written by IT News on 2:57 AM

One of the main issues with the laptop computer or devices is that they cannot keep the battery life required of most PC users. Over the years, various techniques have been developed to reduce electricity consumption for the hardware components, but battery improvements have not been significant. But laptop batteries could soon give as much as 40 hours of life between charges. It could be possible through a new technology developed by Mary Lou Jepsen, the former head of Intel's display division, and Chief Technology Officer at One Laptop per Child.

According to a news article published on PC Advisor, Jepsen plans to start shipping ultra-low power displays designed for portable computers and e-books as soon as the second half of 2009. These screens can be used in devices that would allow users to read in direct sunlight and have a completely saturated HDTV-quality color mode. This basically means that, apart from better picture quality upcoming laptop computer can also increase battery life.

"At Pixel Qi, we have a new series of inventions that go far beyond the OLPC screen that we are developing now," said Mary Lou Jepsen. Pixel Qi is said to be planning the development of an entire laptop and PC designed to take advantage of the company's new screen technology, which allows for some of the most power-efficient models on the market.

One such product, currently in a phase of development at Pixel Qi, is a new e-paper is paper-white and can provide both color and video. It is said that it has significantly lower power consumption compared with conventional LCDs, and can enable companies to design new types of portable computers, boasting long-lasting batteries.

"We are working with a number of laptop and e-book makers in a number of different form factors," Jepsen showed. "We can make it possible for an increase of 5-10X the battery life between charges, compared with a regular notebook. This means that instead of having to recharge their batteries after a few hours, you can run 20-40 hours of use on a charge."

[soure softpedia.com]