On the extreme low-end, I have been impressed with the advances the OLPC
project has done with power consumption. The whole machine is expected
to run at 3 watts typical (as opposed to 30 of my current laptop). This
includes using wifi and a backlit screen.
Here is some text from with wikipedia article[1] explaining how the
backlighting can be made power efficient.
"""
Jepsen has described the removal of the filters that color the RGB
subpixels <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subpixel> as the critical design
innovation in the new liquid crystal display
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_crystal_display>. Instead of using
subtractive color filters, the display uses a plastic diffraction
grating <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffraction_grating> and lenses on
the rear of the LCD to illuminate the colored subpixels. This grating
pattern is stamped using the same technology used to make DVDs
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD>. The grating splits the light from
the white backlight into a spectrum. The red, green and blue components
are diffracted into the correct positions to illuminate the
corresponding R, G or B subpixels. This innovation results in a much
brighter display and a corresponding reduction in backlight
illumination: While the color filters in a regular display typically
absorb 85% of the light that hits them, this display absorbs little of
that light.
"""
If the picture quality is good enough, this could be a huge breakthrough
for laptops in general.
-- Rick
[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OLPC
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