Intel Powers Microprocessor With Glass of Wine

Pour a tall one for super-efficient computer chips. Literally. Device engineers at Intel have created a microprocessor that powers up from a single glass of red wine.

The silicon microprocessor was demonstrated recently during a talk by Genevieve Bell, Intel's director of user experience research, at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco. “If we want to have mobile technology that doesn’t burden us down, that knows us, it turns out we’re going to need really, really low power,” she said.

The system was made in Intel Labs as part of an internal project to redefine what low power really means. While the demo was intentionally short on details, the engineer explained that it’s a bit like that school project where you power an LED with DIY lemon batteries, but instead of lemons, they used wine — this being California, after all. Read more...