Fujitsu Laboratories, the company’s R&D subsidiary, has announced the development [press release in English] of a transistor for the power supply units of servers that can help reduce electricity consumption of computer hardware and home electronics significantly.
In the case of data centers, for example, Fujitsu speaks of a 12% decrease in power consumption. For its home market of Japan, the company claims this alone would help save 330,000 of CO2 yearly.
Fujitsu’s transistors are made from a gallium nitride material (instead of silicon). Whereas conventional transistors lose around a third of the input supplied power to heat, the new version cuts this number by around 66%.
What’s more interesting from a consumer point of view: A Fujitsu researcher has also said [JP] his company aims at reducing the size of their energy-saving to be able to supply it to makers of notebooks, home electronics and electric vehicles by 2013 or 2014.
This almost sounds too good to be true. But first Fujitsu Laboratories’ own data centers will get the new transistors after mass production starts in 2011.