Eight hours of battery life from Intel?

Intel Corporation and Matsushita Battery Industrial have announced that as a result of their latest joint development, huge-capacity batteries for laptops could appear as early as mid-next year.

The new power source would, of course, pamper Intel Centrino-based solutions for the first time, which in itself could give a significant boost to the platform. Matsushita’s battery, released in April 2006, is now capable of storing 2,9 Ah, soaring 30 percent above its current peak.

At the Intel Developer Forum a year ago, the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturer reported that as a result of their developments, by 2010, any average notebook will be able to run continuously for up to eight hours. Well, it seems that this privilege will already be available in 2006 for some high-end systems. It feels good to see that while desktops are consuming more and more and warming up, building blocks developed for less power-intensive applications are becoming more efficient and economical. The fact that properly selected central processing units, hard disks, wireless network controllers and displays can provide more and more energy using less and less energy will also play a crucial role in achieving the increasing battery life.

It would be good if this endeavor were to spread more and more to desktops, so that those who do not need the highest performance ever can buy much more efficient systems.