OSAKA —

Semiconductor maker Rohm Co on Thursday announced the development of a large-scale integrated circuit that consumes no electricity during waiting time, paving the way for a sharp reduction in power consumption by consumer electronics. The innovative LSI has become possible as Rohm has developed a technology that maintains the processing capacity of LSIs without using electricity, the company said.

Experiments have proved that a game console can cut the use of power by some 70% if it adopts a central processing unit incorporating the technology, it added. The company plans to start producing the new LSI on a commercial basis within a year or so. Rohm estimates that some 15 billion kilowatt hours of electricity, equivalent to the output capacity of two nuclear reactors, are consumed a year during the waiting time of appliances in all households in Japan.

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2 Comments

• 

  treebeard at 08:41 AM JST - 9th May

  "Cool"

  in more ways than one....

• 

  ronaldk at 10:07 AM JST - 9th May

  Great!

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