Most of us use a glass of wine to unwind, but Intel is using wine to speed up microprocessors.
Intel has created a microprocessor that powers up on a glass of red wine.
In a similar way to school science experiments using lemons to power batteries, red wine equipped with copper and zinc parts provides enough microwatts to power an accelerometer and the Intel communications processing system.
Thanks to the power produced by the red wine, an engineer moved a flower image around the computer screen in real time by moving the accelerometer.
Genevieve Bell, Intel’s director of user experience research, demonstrated the alcohol-based technology at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco.
"If we want to have mobile technology that doesn’t burden us down, that knows us, it turns out we’re going to need really, really low power," she said.
The system was made in Intel Labs as part of an internal project to redefine what low power really means.
Ultimately, the aim is to produce device-charging technology on the microwatt level that doesn’t sacrifice performance which could boost energy for electronics on the go. As well as using red wine, Intel is also hoping to produce power from light and heat sources, including the warmth of a person’s skin.
