Power plays
The hottest--literally--form of new power technology are fuel cells. A single portable cell has the potential to run a notebook for almost a day. To recharge the cell, users simply pour in more fuel.The technology itself is not new, with inventors suggesting its possibility in the 19th century. But lately, the rise of volt-guzzling mobile devices and the quest for greener cars have revived interest these generators.
Each fuel cell is filled with a liquid that is a source of the stuff of electricity, electrons. Using metals that act as catalysts, electrons are separated from the fuel molecules and are diverted along conductors. The fuel can be hydrogen, ethanol or alcohol. Hydrogen is used today in testbed cars because these cells release only clean emissions--pure water is one product of the chemical reaction--and because cars are big enough to be made safe for the transport and "burning" of potentially explosive hydrogen.
For smaller devices such as cell phones, PDAs and notebooks, less volatile methanol and ethanol is being looked into.
Power-sipping processors: Transmeta got there first with their Crusoe processor two years ago but failed to set the world alight, thanks to over-exuberant prelaunch hype and raw performance that induces more yawns than wows. Still, it has found some success, with notebook makers such as Fujitsu and Sony incorporating the chip in their subnotes.
Intel launched mobile versions of their desktop processors last year, starting with the mobile Pentium III, or Pentium III-M. The Pentium 4-M came along this year. Chipmaking rival AMD has also answered with its mobile Athlon processor. Mobile processors generally behave the same as desktop processors, except for the ability step down their power consumption when the notebook is in battery mode.
However, the chip giant is not content with that and next year will see the launch of a new mobile chip architecture, in a processor codenamed Banias. At its release, Intel sources have said that the chip will do the same work of a desktop processor but consume about a quarter less energy--not an earthshaking achievement, but improvements will come with model revisions.
Net Everywhere and Other Enhancements
Now that 802.11-based wireless networking is firmly entrenched in both the home and business environments, more notebook makers will integrate 802.11b and 802.11a chips into the machine, in much the same way that Ethernet ports became standard equipment. As demand grows, the price of the chipsets should fall low enough for makers in incorporate the chips without incurring a big price penalty.
Bluetooth, the other networking standard which is used for short-range communications, looks increasingly less likely to matter as Wi-Fi (802.11b) gains in applications and popularity.
Desknotes--low-priced notebooks featuring desktop processors and no batteries--will become ever more popular, and it's possible that large US and Japanese makers will want to step into a market dominated by the Taiwanese.
As the USB 2.0 tide grows in the desktop world, this high-speed interface will surely become standard ware in the mobile arena in a few months, with mainboard chipset makers such as VIA and Intel taking the next logical step. Also coming in the short term: A faster graphics bus in the form the AGP 8X.
And also coming up by the end of this year: A DVD recorder in a notebook. Pioneer is developing this product and the drive will read and re-write DVD discs at 2X speed, record CDs at 16X speed and rewrite CDs at 10X speed.
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