DARPA Targets Computing's Achilles Heel: Power

coondoggie writes "The power required to increase computing performance, especially in embedded or sensor systems has become a serious constraint and is restricting the potential of future systems. Technologists from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency are looking for an ambitious answer to the problem and will next month detail a new program it expects will develop power technologies that could bolster system power output from today's 1 GFLOPS/watt to 75 GFLOPS/watt."

Comments

Re:let me answer that with a question

[Anonymous Coward]

No, the problem is getting hold of raw materials for batteries. Mobile computing is on the rise and the west doesn't want to be too dependent on foreign mineral deposits. More efficient computers = smaller batteries = smaller amounts of lithium etc needed.

Re:let me answer that with a question

[Teun]

Why do you need an energy crisis to make something work more efficiently?
Concidering energy does not come cheap there is a very good commercial reason to save on one of the larger costs in computing (or any other activity)

And even though the US hosts the worldleaders in denial of CO2 related climate change it is still an ever more important concideration for many people, even in the US.