The Hindu : National : New cell technology to `fuel' portable PC

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Sunday, Oct 01, 2006
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New cell technology to `fuel' portable PC

Anand Parthasarathy

Taiwanese partners unveil fuel cell-based design

San Francisco: With so much concern about the dangers inherent in the use of Lithium ion batteries to power portable personal computers, any whiff of an alternative is welcome news.

At the Intel Developer Forum which concluded here on Thursday, most experts were sceptical about any viable alternative being immediately available.

Reference design

But two floors below, in the Moscone Convention Centre, a consortium of developers from Taiwan were demonstrating what they called a `reference design' of a single-chip fuel cell-based power source for portable devices.

Prototype

A fuel cell provider (Antig Technology), a printed circuit board player (Nan Ya PCB Corporation), a thermal solutions specialist (AVC) and a chip design company (Systopek) have joined hands to create the early fuel cell prototype called BEGINI, a 16-watt charger for portable PCs.

They claim that they will launch full production later this year to help fuel devices like notebooks, GPS satellite receivers, and mobile phones.

Electrochemical reaction

A fuel cell produces electricity by electrochemical reaction, for example the oxidation of fuel, typically, hydrogen and oxygen or zinc and air.

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