Green Plug Inks IP Deal For Greener CE Power

On Dec 7 2009 - 8:00am

Green Plug announced a joint development agreement with chip provider Imagination Technologies to develop energy-saving DC power adapters for CE devices.

Under the partnership, Green Plug will implement its Greentalk technology, a protocol to exchange power information through the power line between power adapters and electronic products, in new chips and processors based on Imagination's system-on-chip IP.

Greentalk enables new power monitoring and control applications to be built on top of the protocol. The result, said Green Plug, is a smarter DC power adapter that reduces e-waste, automatically shuts off when power is not needed, and can be configured to serve power to two or more Greentalk-enabled products concurrently.

Green Plug will develop two new products using Imagination's IP: the next generation of Green Plug Power Processor (GPP) chip for power supplies, and the Greentalk Load Processor (GLP) macro for consumer electronic devices.

With the GPP, devices can communicate with Greentalk-enabled power supplies directly over the existing power cable and connector on the device.

The GLP will enable makers of a wide range of CE products to include a smart power interface for little or no charge. That interface would accept power from conventional power adapters or new Greentalk-enabled power adapters and hubs.

Green Plug claimed to be the first company to apply two-way digital communication to convert a universal power source to a device's specific power requirements.

Green Plug said its technology minimizes solid waste by allowing consumers to keep their chargers for use with future devices after their current devices have become obsolete.