Some of Intel Corp.'s tiny devices could one day have a big impact on the environment.
David R. Baker, Chronicle Staff Writer, Friday, December 5, 2008
The computer chipmaker on Friday offered reporters a glimpse of its research into products such as chip-size sensors that monitor air quality while riding piggyback on street-sweepers. Or cell phones that recharge themselves with energy "scavenged" from the environment.
Sensing
Intel has designed tiny sensors that can continuously analyze pollution. The company has tested a version of this technology in San Francisco, putting the sensors in small boxes attached to street-sweeping machines. A transmitter connected to the sensor relays the data to whoever needs it. Distributed around the globe, these devices could give scientists up-to-the-minute details of air quality worldwide. "We could, in fact, litter the planet with these things," Rattner said. "Why can't we have these sensors on your cell phones?"
'Free' energy
Intel is developing devices that can tap the energy in the environment around them. Sunlight is one possibility, but so are television signals, cell phone towers and body heat. The amounts of energy captured at any one time would be very small, so the devices would need to act as "scavengers," storing up energy until they had enough to perform a specific task.
Wireless Identification and Sensing Platform (WISP)
This concept merges sensing and energy scavenging. Intel is researching sensors that would store up energy until they had enough to run a built-in data transmitter. Again, because the amount of power involved would be small, the transmitter would have very limited range. But it could still be useful. Rattner gave an example of a medical implant monitoring a patient's health and transmitting data to a doctor by shipping that data to a cell phone near the implant.
Adaptive power
Energy demand in a computer or a data center isn't constant - it increases or decreases depending on what tasks the gear is performing. Intel is trying to develop processors that can follow changes in energy demand microsecond by microsecond (one millionth of a second), minimizing the amount of electricity lost to idling.
E-mail David R. Baker at dbaker@sfchronicle.com.
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