Claremont, solar-powered Intel microprocessor

Intel has developed a “Near Threshold Voltage Processor”. This chip, code-named “Claremont”, works with ultra low voltage circuits, close to threshold, or turn-on voltage, of the transistors. This chip runs fast when needed, or consume just milliwatts of power when there when the workload is light enough. This means that it can work with green energies, like the solar power. Thus, Intel is unveiling one of its most interesting developments with an eye to the future: the solar-powered microprocessor.

Claremont is based in the Intel Pentium of 1996, a new modified architecture over the original P5 aiming to achieve the minimal power consumption. We are speaking of about 10 milliwatts, a real achievement considering that current CPUs are hovering around 15 or 20 watts. For that purpose they had modified both the board itself and the processor settings, underclocking it and reducing the voltage. Besides, they have implemented new techniques to achieve a better efficiency, even though it doesn’t seem to be enough for everyday tasks.

Claremont is not going to be a product itself, so we are not going to see processor with this name, but the knowledge acquired with this product could be applied in other computing devices. So it is possible that the next generation of Intel CPUs have a very low power consumption thanks to this work.