One step closer to smarter power supplies: Green Plug inks deals with chip supplier, OEM

Green Plug, which has been evangelizing technology that enables smarter, more universal power adapters, has found two advocates for its technology.

The company has struck deals with Imagination Technologies, which manufactures system-on-chip technology, and one of Imagination's customers, PURE. According to Green Plug, Imagination plans to include the Greentalk digital power protocol and Greenwire physical layer technology within its core products, which are used in things like in-car entertainment systems, game consoles, set-top boxes and mobile devices. PURE, a maker of digital radios, plans to enable the Green Plug functions in some of its products and it plans to introduce a smart power adapter along those lines.

The big push by Green Plug isn't just that adapters can support more than one type of device, it's that devices can be charged more intelligently. Greentalk monitors the charging process so that when something is at full charge, it stops delivering power to the device. Green Plug devices under development are also being designed to allow multiple gadgets to be charged simultaneously.

The idea behind making Green Plug's intellectual property native in controller chips or power management systems is to help cut costs.