back to article Intel claims it’s halved laptop display power slurpage

Intel today staged its annual keynote at Taiwan’s Computex tech-fest and revealed a new “Low Power Display Technology” that the company said can halve the power consumption of a laptop’s screen. Chipzilla’s schtick this year is going from “PC to Personal Contribution Platform” and adapting the PC so that users “can make their …

  1. Tomislav

    Inquiring mind wants to know...

    What about SPECTRE? Can we expect that to get solved in the new processors?

    1. Anonymous Custard
      Boffin

      Re: Inquiring mind wants to know...

      And will they be baked using 1272 (14nm), 1274 (10nm) or 1276 (7nm) designs?

  2. tojb
    Paris Hilton

    no information here

    There is no information in Intel's press release as to how this super-duper low power display should work, therefore no info in this reg article, or engaget etc etc. Annoying, as how is far more interesting that watt.

    1. werdsmith Silver badge

      Re: no information here

      I would guess low power means no backlighting so it's either light from the pixel or some kind of transflective.

      If it's transflective then I will be happy because I like working outdoors and I've been looking out for a good sunlight visible screen for years.

      1. DropBear
        Trollface

        Re: no information here

        I'm wondering whether they just handwaved some magic "AI" and "ML" into discrete LED backlight tiles to turn them off "betterer" when that part of the screen is dim (which as a general idea is really not new, it's what all the "LED TV"s do). Actual (O)LED panels don't need any extra tech - when they're off, they're off but that's not exactly novel - and traditional full-screen backlights just can't save power. Hey, maybe they invented tiny mirror-backed pixels that reflect all blocked light back into the backlight unit to be used by other pixels! Yup, that must be it...

  3. Voland's right hand Silver badge

    will need an Intel display adapter

    will need an Intel display adapter

    Stopped reading it right there.

    1. phuzz Silver badge

      Re: will need an Intel display adapter

      Intel integrated are a hell of a lot better than they used to be. Which isn't saying much I guess, but their top of the line integrated graphics are now being built by AMD.

      Yeah, AMD GPUs in Intel CPUs. Really.

      No it doesn't make any sense to me either.

      1. Androgynous Cupboard Silver badge

        Re: will need an Intel display adapter

        For a virtual doubling of battery life? I kept reading.

        1. Nick Ryan Silver badge

          Re: will need an Intel display adapter

          For a virtual doubling of battery life? I kept reading.

          No, for a 50% reduction in display power usage. On a typical laptop the display is not the most power hungry component.

    2. nevarre

      Re: will need an Intel display adapter

      How many laptops do you own that don't have an intel display adapter?

      1. DropBear

        Re: will need an Intel display adapter

        Just the one I work on at work - but why would there be an Intel display adapter in my AMD / ATI (sic) laptop...?

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    all-day battery life

    pretty ambitious for a laptop.

    by the way, contributing to WHAT?!

    1. defiler

      Re: all-day battery life

      contributing to WHAT?!

      To TEH BLOCKCHAINZ!!™

  5. James 51

    Of course they could stick it in normal monitors or TVs and reduce electrical consumption.

    With zero information on the display technology we don't know how it compares in terms of contrast, vibrancy etc etc to other display technologies. E-paper (such as was used in the pebble time) or e-ink (there is an e-ink monitor I would buy if I had £1,000 lying round doing nothing) were good candidates for reducing eye strain and increasing battery life but they've ended up as niche technologies.

    1. Cuddles

      "Of course they could stick it in normal monitors or TVs and reduce electrical consumption."

      Or, presumably, in phones. Which makes the claim that they're going to claw people away from their phones and back to PCs sound a bit odd - if you can improve battery life, phones are going to see the biggest benefit out of all devices. It might be restricted to PCs to start with, but if the improvement is real and as big as they claim, they'd be insane not to roll it out everywhere they can - phone manufacturers would be clawing over each other to get Intel inside their kit if it meant they'd be able to boast of double the battery life.

      1. DropBear

        Actually, it occurs to me that there would be a way to save major energy - by directionally emitting pixels, which is a nice way to say "horrible viewing angles". They would be the death of any TV or phone (not seeing your phone's screen resting flat on a table would be a disaster) but to be honest - how many times do you look at a laptop/desktop monitor any other way than head-on? If the fall-off could be made sharp and synchronous across colours (ie. no "colour inversion" or other major change between +/- 15 degrees or so, then suddenly pitch black outside that) it might work, and you could even sell it as a "privacy" bonus feature...

  6. Korev Silver badge

    Intel knows there’s nothing wrong with modern PCs and that’s the problem: users will put up with ‘em for a year or three longer than used to be the case

    You mean Intel didn't release a significantly faster desktop chip for years, but when AMD Rizen from the grave Intel managed to suddenly up the core count. :)

  7. mark l 2 Silver badge

    Although it is good to have a longer battery life on your laptop i think more people would want longer battery life on their phones. I remember reading that the majority of laptops spend most of their time at homes and offices sat on desks and are rarely used on the move, so most of the time they will be plugged into the mains or at least have power close by if required.

    I know personally that it is almost 12 months since my laptop was used while out and about as it was when i took my car in for its MOT which is due again soon. On that occasion I was a able to plug it into the mains while i used it anyway.

  8. deive

    "Intel officials said the tech will be baked into displays, will need an Intel display adapter and drivers"

    Stop it with the propriety crap already! Intel display drivers are so poor even Intel are now using AMD.

  9. 89724102371719531892724I9755670349743096734346773478647852349863592355648544996313855148583659264921

    CPU won't Windows 7

    Yeah, great tech I would love on all my laptops right now, but NEVER AGAIN WINDOWS 10!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: CPU won't Windows 7

      You could always run Linux on the deskpffftttttt hahaha

      Sorry, I couldn't keep a straight face all the way through that sentence.

      1. Camilla Smythe

        Re: CPU won't Windows 7

        You could always run Linux on the deskpffftttttt hahaha

        Already am but thanks for the, somewhat late, advice.

      2. 89724102371719531892724I9755670349743096734346773478647852349863592355648544996313855148583659264921

        Re: CPU won't Windows 7

        I'm more likely to Hackintosh

  10. Nick Kew

    e-ink?

    This is welcome news. Just a shame it didn't happen 30 years ago. I expect smartphones could benefit too. And the bit about an Intel display adaptor doesn't bother me: apart from anything else, if the technology catches on, competitors are sure to emerge.

    But we already have a perfectly good near-zero-power display technology? Where have the e-ink laptops been this past decade and more?

    1. Mage Silver badge

      Re: e-ink?

      eInk is almost mechanical, steampunk. So forget animation & video or scrolling.

      It can't do colour without a x3 to x 8 brightness penalty depending on colour saturation because it's purely reflective, LCD inherently x2 brightness or more with backlight same power as eInk front light

      More than a few shades of grey needs dithering.

      VERY expensive.

      ++++

      ++++

      On the plus:

      300dpi

      Zero power till page changed

      Great for reading 1 million words or much more between charges.

      More relevant question: Where is Mirasol? It does colour and animation. Has it been crippled by Qualcomm royalty charges?

      1. Nick Kew

        Re: e-ink?

        More than happy to forget animation and video. Colour is dispensable. Scrolling would be missed, and of course other interaction (like typing a comment on El Reg) would be more primitive, but that's a price well worth paying.

  11. DCFusor

    Silly wabbits

    It's not the display power (well it is, bu) - it's the power budget as defined by OEMs. Batteries that were worse than now lasted longer than now "back in the day" - up until OEMs found that a more performant system sold better even with reduced battery time; it's crept down steadily, and with few exceptioins, monotonically.

    To the extent intel has any control at all - they'd love to sell more-faster you-name-it other silicon and battery life is someone else's problem. If in fact they now have an acceptable display that draws less power, OEMs will just use it up (and more) in other faffery. Those who forget history...rhymes.

    With tech from what was a perfectly good old samsung flip phone that had a calc app and voice recog good enough to dial a number (and other junk never used) - battery life was days, and not on standby.

    Batteries were worse then (NiMH!), as were cpus and displays. What's that tell you?

    Glad I gave the things up long ago. I don't need to be the entertainment for anyone who has my number and is bored - my time is MINE to waste as I please.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    PC to PCP

    I think it bodes ill for the industry as a whole if even Intel no longer see it as a personal computer.

    Think I will be back to AMD all the way.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The lede teased 5GHz

    No info on the 5GHz CPUs teased in title? No, mentioning two upcoming arcitectures, and not tying them to the speed increase does not count.

  14. Nimby
    Angel

    Still waiting...

    ... for a full Windows desktop OS on a 5-inch tablet PC to replace my svelte old pocket-capable and windshield-friendly Viliv S5. Sadly, phones still have not managed to meet my mobile computing needs. Come on already. And I'll happily take that with a dash of reduced screen power usage and a dollop of faster wifi please.

  15. Darkimmortal

    Not again...

    Their existing display 'power saving' is a difficult-to-disable software contrast destroyer that makes laptop displays look awful and saves absolutely no power.

    Let's see if they can top that stupidity!

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