When you talk about microprocessors most people think of AMD or Intel, which are two giants of the industry. In just a few years a constellation of Japanese companies may become a third alternative, at least on niched markets. Seven well known Japanese consumer electronics makers have teamed up to develop a microprocessor, primarily intended for home electronics. The development is led by professor Hironori Kasahara of Waseda University, and among the companies supporting him we find Canon, Fujitsu, NEC, Hitachi, Panasonic, Toshiba and Renesas.
The processor is intended to be used in HDTVs, Blu-ray players and similar apparatus, and will thus not be based on x86 architecture like Intel’s and AMD’s PC processors. This of course means that there won’t be any desktop PCs with this processor, but it may very well appear on other platforms that may become very useful to us.
With power consumption up to 70% lower than current models it looks impressive, but it also says that processor will be able to maintain operation even when the power is cut. Through a joint architecture the Japanese giants expect to save loads of money on development, not just the hardware bit but also the software.
