IBM clinches Defense deal

Less power-hungry computers...

IBM has begun working with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) in the US to develop computers that are less power-hungry.

DARPA is the US government's main defence research organisation and will contribute $2m to IBM's Low Power Center, which was established last year.

While over the years computers of all sizes have become increasingly power intensive, the race is now on to reverse this trend. Researchers will focus on various aspects of the computer ranging from the processor to the operating system.

Reducing the amount of power a computer uses can bring down the total cost of ownership while at the same time up reliability, particularly in high temperatures.

The boffins at the research centre will work on large computing clusters but eventually the new technologies could end up on servers and storage systems.

IBM joins HP and Intel who have also recently started investigating the possibilities of low power computers.