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Portable electronic devices

Top university researchers and engineers from major corporations will meet March 9 and 10 at Purdue University's Stewart Center to discuss efforts to increase the performance of portable devices like cell phones, laptop computers and hearing aides. In part, the research strives to create devices that use less energy, run longer on a single battery charge and require lighter-weight batteries. Engineers will detail their most recent findings and give overviews about their research.

The annual workshop, "Mobile Information Systems: Networking and Computing," will attract experts from companies such as IBM, Intel Corp. and Texas Instruments. Among the highlights:

• Purdue engineers have developed a new technique for computers to continually monitor how much memory is needed -- depending on the programs that are running at any given time -- and then strategically shut down unneeded memory circuits automatically. Presently, computers run on full power all the time, even if they are using programs that require only a small portion of the system's total memory. Engineers also will discuss other ongoing efforts to create innovative circuits and software that enable computers and mobile electronic equipment to operate at lower power.

• Ambuj Goyal, a key player in IBM's Blue Gene supercomputer project, will give a keynote address at 8 p.m. March 9. The $100 million project is striving to build a supercomputer 500 times faster than today's best computers, making it capable of modeling how human proteins fold, a process critical to life.

CONTACTS: Mary Moyars-Johnson, manager of industrial and alumni relations for the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, (765) 494-3441, moyars@ecn.purdue.edu, or Emil Venere, a science writer at the Purdue University News Service, (765) 494-4709, evenere@uns.purdue.edu.

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