A paper battery that uses urine as its power source will soon be present in home testing kits for conditions such as diabetes.
Up until now, such kits have required an additional power source, such as a lithium ion battery, but the new system uses the medium being tested (urine) to generate a potential difference.
The battery unit is made from a layer of paper that is steeped in copper chloride (CuCl) and sandwiched between strips of magnesium and copper. This “sandwich” is then held in place by being laminated, which involves passing the battery unit between a pair of transparent plastic films through a heating roller at 120ºC. The final product has dimensions of 60 mm x 30 mm, and a thickness of just 1 mm (a little bit smaller than a credit card).
“Our urine-activated battery would be integrated into biochip systems for healthcare diagnostic applications,” says Dr Ki Bang Lee of Singapore’s Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology who developed the battery. He envisions a world where people will easily be able to monitor their health at home, seeking medical attention only when necessary.
TechSmec.com has less noble ambitions for pee-power. Remember the potato-powered alarm clock? We envisage a day when you will just have a quick tinkle at the bedside to make sure you get up on time the next morning.
August 16th, 2005
With development ahead of schedule, Intel has announced it is accelerating the availability of dual-core, hyper-threaded Intel Xeon processors and Intel Xeon processors MP. The new processors will help improve server responsiveness, speed and multi-tasking by allowing software to manage information from up to four “brains” per Intel processor. In addition, Intel has begun a broad evaluation program of thousands of dual-core platforms for software developers and enterprise customers.
“As they did with dual-core PC processors earlier this year, Intel engineers have executed exquisitely, and because of that we’ll bring our dual-core Intel Xeon processor platforms to the marketplace well ahead of schedule,” said Kirk Skaugen, general manager of Intel’s Server Platforms Group.
Originally due in 2006, Intel plans to introduce the dual-core Intel Xeon processor MP, codenamed “Paxville,” for servers with four or more processors later in 2005. Paxville will provide more than 60 percent better performance over previous generations and will use the Intel E8500 chipset, which has been architected for dual-core performance and was introduced earlier this year.
For dual processor servers, Intel plans to ship a premium dual-core Intel Xeon processor, codenamed “Paxville DP” in 2005. Paxville DP will deliver up to 50 percent improved performance over previous generations and will use the Intel E7520 chipset.
Paxville DP is targeted at early adopters and evaluators of dual-core technology and is to be followed by a broader family of dual-core Intel Xeon processor-based platforms, codenamed “Bensley” for servers and “Glidewell” for workstations, in the first quarter of 2006. Bensley and Glidewell are targeted to complete an extremely aggressive transition to dual-core top to bottom in Intel’s entire server and workstation line-up.
Both 64-bit Paxville and Paxville DP processors will utilize Intel Hyper-Threading Technology, allowing a single dual-core processor to run four threads simultaneously. The platforms will also include enhanced security features such as Execute Disable Bit and improved power management with Demand Based Switching.
Intel has 17 multi-core projects under development and expects more than 85 percent of its server volume exiting 2006 to be multi-core processors. In addition to the Intel Xeon processors due in 2005, Intel began shipping the dual-core Intel Pentium D processor for uni-processor servers in July 2005 and remains on track to begin shipping dual-core Intel Itanium processors by the end of the year.
Intel’s evaluation program, which began today, will ultimately deliver thousands of dual-core platforms based on Intel Pentium D processors, Intel Xeon processors, Intel Xeon processors MP and Intel Itanium processors to early adopter customers and software developers through 2005 and into 2006.
August 16th, 2005