Stealthy chip startup's technology is a big power play

Lowering the power consumption of chips has become a rallying call for chip industry and SuVolta is as well doing its bit so that battery-powered mobile devices will last longer and server makers can deliver computing without requiring data centers to have their own power plants — a theoretical future that could grind the current wave of web services and cloud computing innovations to a halt. The startup has the backing of several A-listers in the chip world, just as Andy Bechtolsheim, Wilfred Corrigan and Bill Joy.

SuVolta’s tech, nevertheless, is less revolutionary than changing the design of the transistor. At an early point in the manufacturing process the SuVolta research calls for slightly different combination of ingredients to be layered on the chip. Semiconductors are manufactured in a manner similar to layer cakes, with each layer of circuitry deposited on the chip and the unnecessary bits etched away according to whatever pattern the manufacturer is supposed to follow. Thompson says that SuVolta’s process, which will be available straightway year, doesn’t change the overall chip making process. It doesn’t change the silicon used to make the chip, and it can be easily implemented in fabrication plants that will license SuVolta’s innovation.

Unlike building a new chip and finding buyers for it, SuVolta has to convince chip foundries just as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, chip makers just as Qualcomm, Broadcom and even chip equipment makers just as applied Materials to embrace its new innovation. Fujitsu Semiconductor has signed on as the first licensee. Let’s hope there will be others – for the sake of our power-hungry smartphones.