Matching supply, demand
There was a time when a laptop could weigh 10 pounds and still sell, a time when a cell phone was larger than a pocket, and a time when an iPod played only music. Today’s consumers expect mobile devices that are both smaller and more powerful. All the bells and whistles, however, suck up energy — and a phone that lasts only four hours because it’s also a GPS device is only so useful. To promote energy-efficient multitasking, Harvard graduate student Wonyoung Kim has developed and demonstrated a new device with the potential to reduce the power usage of modern processing chips. The advance could allow the creation of “smarter” smartphones, slimmer laptops, and more energy-friendly data centers. Kim’s on-chip, multicore voltage regulator (MCVR) addresses what amounts to a mismatch between power supply and demand. “If you’re listening to music on your MP3 player, you don’t need to send power to the image and graphics...