Comments on: A Warning about ‘Smart’ Device Battery Life.

By: NobbyNobbs

NobbyNobbs — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:13:47 +0000

It`rather a question of not being able to (because of glossy displays or poor brightness) than a question of not wanting to.

By: Glenn

Glenn — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 13:41:02 +0000

to Battery; There is a lot of battery research going on. However, for ALL the things that a battery has to do, what you see right now are the basic fields under study and the stuff under development looks to be expensive even if produced in large numbers, hazardous because of materials used in production, or dangerous because a battery must contain a lot of power.

in general; Although the field of battery research seams to be a long and winding road, the field of power usage in computers is more open and smooth. Smaller processors are clearly possible and detailed reading of sub 35nm production papres shows that the problems encountered are not final limitations.
Right now screens can be sectioned to allow only a sector(s) to be lit as needed.
And right now processors of different sizes(asymmetrical processors)could be joined on the mother board so that power would be drawn as needed, switching processors while running.
But with all of this Chippy’s advice is most important: be realistic about power use and don’t allow manufacturers to control the conversation with marketing hype.

By: Christoph Derndorfer

Christoph Derndorfer — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 00:16:06 +0000

If you're interested in mobile "computing" this is a must read: "A Warning about ‘Smart’ Device Battery Life." by @chippy http://is.gd/6pF6B

By: Mike Cane

Mike Cane — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 23:45:04 +0000

>>>although lets be honest, how often is a PC used outside?

Ha! You’ve not been around NYC in places where there is free public WiFi outside! Bryant Park, for one, is filled with people and notebooks in warm weather!

By: Josef

Josef — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 20:26:56 +0000

Very good !

“That’s what we’re here for!” Jep and thats good for us and for that a big thank you.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 20:11:13 +0000

But i don’t see the need that screen/cpu/gpu/wifi/3g/BT/GPS/etc should be on all the time, i still think that manufacturers and specification regulators have a long way in optimizing entire chipset environment.

By: battery

battery — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 19:28:52 +0000

Here’s hoping to big advances in battery technology. Lithium-ion batteries are pretty old technology now. Anyone know of any battery research going on?

By: chippy

chippy — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 15:37:33 +0000

THeres another element of platform power that I havent touched on in the above article and thats the theortical advantage of getting a job done and getting a system down to idle asap. E.g. a fast web page load means that you can start to read and find info quicker which means the screen and controls (and CPU/GPU for panning around a screen are used less) Intel calls this ‘hurry up get idle’ (HUGI) This is a theoretical advantage of a more powerful CPU.

I alluded to this in a post about ‘getting things done’ battery life.
http://www.umpcportal.com/2009/06/intels-moorestown-platform-from-smartphone-through-smartbook-and-beyond/2/

By: chippy

chippy — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 15:33:16 +0000

OS is a big big factor, you are correct. In that respect i’m not a fan of Linux and third party apps! Maemo will have a big problem if it continues to let people write apps and features at the core of their operating system.

Internet traffic prioritization is going to become important. Scheduling the use of 3G for apps that can wait 10-30 seconds (polling apps) for example.

Apple definately have the advantage is people are happy with a non-multitasking operating system!

By: chippy

chippy — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 15:29:07 +0000

Absolutely. Pixel Qi screens have advantages (and costs) although lets be honest, how often is a PC used outside? I’d say that backlight-savings would be in the order of 30-50% – about 0.5W (5-10% of netbook power)

By: turn_self_off

turn_self_off — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 11:17:03 +0000

at least unless your work involves editing color images or video, as the qi screen goes grayscale without the backlight on.

By: Ben Lang

Ben Lang — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 09:50:27 +0000

A Warning about ‘Smart’ Device Battery Life. – http://shar.es/aRVqg

By: Roberto Innocenti

Roberto Innocenti — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 00:32:33 +0000

sorry for my english, in italian a make some little less errors

By: Roberto Innocenti

Roberto Innocenti — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 00:30:24 +0000

The arm processor of N82 is preistoric in relation to Tegra2 or other new ARM processor, is like make in confront Centrino with Atom , two different era.
It’s like the big fake when Apple tell that X86 was more effiecient power for watt than powerpc and was a fake, becouse before and now powerpc is more efficient than x86 due to the architecture. ( we need to make in relation the SOI dimension and the same year).

What’s more this Smartbook are based on microsystems , where everything ( chip video, audio, controller, dsp, memory are in one big chip), that is what is trynig to copy now Intel for not lost the train.

Sure there are many factors that contribute to the power efficiency over the cpu, one factory is your OS, Windows is very heavy and the antivirus that must run on window doesn’t left any idle the cpu… Over that Windows OS do many unseful things that destroy the cpu, so I suggest in any case gnu/linux or derivate like Android and Chrome OS.

The Smartbook tested until now are in practice consume less power than any other x86 achitecture , and the uncompatibility with Windows Os is a good news.

By: Will Entrekin

Will Entrekin — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 00:12:41 +0000

RT @mikecane: A Warning about ‘Smart’ Device Battery Life. http://tinyurl.com/ykk4o5c <- EXPERT on power drain!