Marvell, a manufacturer of storage, communications, and consumer silicon solutions has just announced that they’ve developed power supply technology designed to cut PC energy use and help decrease carbon emissions.The new chips dynamically adapt the incoming electrical current and align the current and voltage coming from the outlet for optimal energy use by the PC. Apparently, this improves the energy efficiency of the power supply and reduces electro-magnetic interference by intelligently adjusting the supply profile to provide only the amount of power required by the PC at any given time.

Marvell states that more than half the power from the outlet is wasted as heat, but claims that the new design allows power savings of 35 to 50 per cent depending on how the computer is being used. The US EPA estimates that there are more than 10 billion AC-DC power supplies used in computing, telecoms and consumer electronics worldwide. More efficient power supply designs could significantly reduce US energy use by about 24 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year, saving nearly $3bn annually.

The new technology can be used in internal and external power supplies for a wide range of consumer electronics including flat-screen TVs, home entertainment products and portable devices. The Marvell 88EM8041 controller chip for notebook adapters and the Marvell 88EM8011 controller chip for desktop power supplies are in production now with volume production anticipated for the first quarter of 2008.

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