Give The Microprocessor Some Wine!

Anyone who cooks likes to joke about “A glass of wine for the stew and a glass for the cook”. How times have changed. Now it’s a glass for you and one for the microprocessor. The inventive folk at Intel demonstrated recently in San Francisco that red wine poured into a glass holding copper and zinc parts had enough microwatts to power an accelerometer and the Intel communications and processing system. An engineer was able to move an image around on a computer screen using the accelerometer (we can’t possibly explain an accelerometer to the non-engineers like us!)

The thinking behind this amazing feat is to develop a way to power computers where electricity is scarce or perhaps while traveling. Using red wine was certainly attention grabbing but in reality, engineers are experimenting to find ways to draw power from ambient light or even body heat.

It may take a while, perhaps years, but it sounds like an enjoyable way to conduct research.