PC Battery Life Group Reaches Major Milestone

27 October 2004

Mobile PC Battery Life Group Reaches Major Milestone

The Mobile PC Extended Battery Life Working Group (EBL-WG) today announced a major milestone for its low power display panel initiative, confirming an average annual shipment of more than 6 million low power 12.1/14.1/15.0 XGA display panels at 3 watts or less, about 12 per cent of total estimated notebook shipments for 2004.

Since establishing the initiative a year ago, average display panel power has dropped from 4.3-4.5 watts to 3 watts or less – power savings equivalent to 60 minutes of extra battery life in notebooks. The EBL-WG is targeting an annual rate of 10 million units at 3W or less by early next year, about 20 per cent of estimated total notebook shipments for 2005.

According to Kamal Shah, Mobility Enabling Initiative manager, Mobile Platforms Group, Intel Corporation, and chairman of the EBL-WG, a mobile PC display subsystem constitutes a significant portion of the overall, average power consumed by a mobile PC. Among the various components and subsystems within a mobile PC, the display subsystem absorbs the most power by far. “As new lower power display technologies emerge, the display subsystem must also consume less power to continue driving down overall mobile platform power consumption,” said Shah.

“Consumers are increasingly demanding longer and longer battery life from their notebook PCs. If we are to achieve the ideal of all-day battery life, reducing power consumption of notebook PC displays is critical,” he said.

The EBL-WG milestone demonstrates manufacturers increasing desire to drive down platform power consumption and satisfy end users desire for longer battery life. Several new companies recently joined the EBL-WG including AMD, ATI Technologies Inc., BIC, Infineon, Millennium Cell Inc., Motorola Energy Systems Group, O2Micro, and Sion Power.

“Our increasingly mobile lifestyles demand information access at any place, any time. With Wi-Fi, as Internet access is becoming easier and widely available, we need to complement it by longer battery life so users have truly wireless experience,” said Arif Maskatia, vice president, Acer Value Labs.

The EBL-WG is extending its efforts to drive the industry to adopt its methodology for measuring battery life, which provides a common reference for mobile PC manufacturers to assess power consumption of different panels. The group is encouraging all display panel manufacturers to include power consumption measured according to the EBL-WG guidelines in their product data sheets. The initiative will allow mobile PC manufacturers to assess the list of panel features comprehensively and simplify the panel qualification process by compiling all relevant data in one place.

About Mobile PC EBL-WG The Mobile PC Extended Battery Life Working Group (EBL-WG) is a worldwide, industry-wide group of companies working together to extend the battery life of mobile PCs. For more information about the EBL-WG, visit the EBL-WG web site at http://www.eblwg.org/.

ENDS

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