Taiwan-developed technology can bootup phones in just 6 seconds

Want China Times, CNA 2014-11-11

Lo Shi-wu shows off his invention, Nov. 10. (Photo/CNA)

A researcher in southern Taiwan has developed a potentially energy-saving technology that he says allows smartphones to boot up in as little as six seconds.

"When I looked at the code in the operating system relating to power-saving, I realized there was a more efficient way to code it and started looking into it," said Lo Shi-wu, an assistant professor of computer science and information engineering at National Chung Cheng University.

On average, it takes 40 seconds for most devices to turn on, according to the researcher.

Lo explained Monday that this technology could save energy by encouraging people to switch off their phones when not in use, something many people currently avoid because they feel turning the phone back on when they want to use it can take too long.

Calling his invention an improvement on other energy-saving designs for phones, Lo said it works based on the random access ability of flash memory.

The technology has been patented in Taiwan and South Korea and has already been transferred to several major chip and software companies, Lo said, without specifying the companies.

While it has obvious applications in mobile devices running Google's Android operating system and internet-capable devices, Lo suggested that in the future, car computers and Web-based TV services, such as Chunghwa Telecom's Multimedia on Demand (MOD), could integrate it as well.