New microchip makes cars go vroom vroom with less cha-ching
Performance enhancing microprocessors are nothing new in the world of motor sports, but usually these super chips are designed to give a vehicle monster horsepower or rock-crushing torque. However, as a result of this year's high gas prices, it appears that microchip designers have focused in on something a little less novelty-oriented: fuel economy. According to Freescale Semiconductors, they've designed a microchip that will boost an engine's performance by 10 times and save an average of 30% on operating costs. No matter whether you're talking gasoline, diesel, hybrid, or even electric vehicles like the Volt, the future depends greatly on the development of these "high performance microcontrollers" or MCUs. The advances of these microcontrollers will play a key role in the efforts of automakers to meet the demands of wary consumers and to meet tougher emissions standards that will be put in place over the coming years.
Freescale's latest chip will come with 4MB of flash, one of the largest flash arrays in the auto MCU market, and will allow for more precision timing of a vehicle's emissions systems. Basically, by having better control of the amount of fuel and air in an engine's cylinder, automakers can use less fuel to get the same torque while allowing for a more complete burn -- which in turn produces less emissions. In other words, it's better for drivers and the environment.
[via Earth2Tech]
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