[Discuss] My God! It's Full of Batteries!

[Jerry Feldman]

On 03/16/2012 11:06 AM, Richard Pieri wrote:
> On 3/16/2012 10:38 AM, Jerry Feldman wrote:
>> IMHO, 9-10 ho0urs of battery time is reasonable for a laptop/tablet, but
>> the downtime to recharge can be significant.
>
> Indeed, and that leads to another cooling problem: batteries generate
> heat as they charge.  Faster charging yields higher temperatures.
> That's not typically a problem for notebooks with 60-90 Watt power
> bricks, but tablets are supposed to charge from USB which is 10 Watts
> for the plug-in charger.
>
>
> Steve asked:
>> Is the lack of air flow a good or bad thing? Are the new iPad going to
>> make good hand warmers?
>
> I'll give credit to the ARM architecture: it's much more power
> efficient than x86.  The aluminum back panel is an excellent radiator
> but it's *huge* compared to the die so you're not going to be using it
> to keep your hands or your cat warm during winter.  Unless it's
> charging, in which case the entire area of those massive battery packs
> is is going to be heating up that panel.  Well, as much as 10 Watts
> can manage. :)
>
This gives rise to the need for a new type of battery. The carbon
nano-tube appears to be a leading contender for future batteries either
with Li-ion or alone. But, I don't really see anything in this area
coming anytime soon. Storage is another issues, but that is moving
ahead. I think we will see carbon nano-tube batteries being adopted in
smartphones and tablets on the sooner side for many reasins including
the heat issue. Of course, at breakfast time, you could turn the device
over and fry some eggs :-)

-- 
Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
Boston Linux and Unix
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