NEC Develops Zero Standby Power Semiconductor Tech

Serkan Toto

Dr. Serkan Toto is an independent consultant and advisor focusing on Japan’s web, mobile and social gaming industries. Based in Tokyo, he works together with financial institutions and startups worldwide. Serkan has been the Japan contributor for TechCrunch.com since 2008. He is sept-lingual, holds an MBA and is a PhD in economics. → Learn More

Tuesday, June 14th, 2011

NEC and a researcher from Japan’s Tohoku University, Professor Hideo Ohno, are working on a power chip that solves a pretty big problem: completely eliminating electricity consumption of electronic devices that are in standby mode. The key piece of technology here is CAM, the world’s first content addressable memory.

This non-volatile memory will be built into the control circuits of TVs, computers and other devices and stores data even when the power is turned off. In other words, constant standby power to maintain data will not be needed anymore (the English press release goes into more technical detail). The picture above shows a prototype power chip.

NEC plans to showcase the tech at a symposium in Kyoto this Friday. The company said it expects it will take up to five years until we can see the technology put to practical use.