If only people burned calories while they napped as fast as electrical devices burn battery energy in sleep mode. Weight Watchers would be out of business in a heartbeat. Luckily, University of Michigan researchers have developed a energy-stingy microchip.

The Phoenix Processor uses about 30,000 percent less power in sleep mode than similar processors. It also uses 10 times less while active. In particular, this technology could help make cutting-edge sensors that spend most of the their energy waiting for an event to take on data, such as medical implants or environmental monitors, work much more efficiently.

For example, sensors could be mixed into concrete to sense the structural integrity of new buildings and bridges without fear of dramatic energy loss. U-M researchers are putting the Phoenix in a biomedical sensor to monitor eye pressure in glaucoma patients.

The Phoenix uses a low-power timer that acts as an alarm clock on perpetual snooze, waking the microchip every 10 minutes for 1/10th of a second to run a set of 2,000 instructions. The list includes checking the sensor for new data, processing it, compressing it into a sort of short-hand and storing it before going back to sleep.

Source: University of Michigan
Writer: Jon Zemke