Texas Instruments has designed a proof-of-concept chip that uses a tenth of the power of modern-day chips. This is a huge innovation that could lead to far better battery life for anything that uses a chip and is powered by batteries including phones, medical devices, and sensors.

The jump in efficiency was attained by reducing the amount of energy flowing round the chip from 1.0 volts to 0.3. There is also a built-in DC-to-DC converter to greatly reduce power consumption without needing an external unit. Enough of the tech jabber and back to real life.

The chip uses so little energy that it can be completely powered by ambient heat sources, such as the body heat of a human. How awesome is that? We would love to see more advancements in this direction so we can ditch our chargers and power all of our gadgetry with body heat.

Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy and the University of California at Berkeley have recently discovered a new way of making silicon into a better thermal conductor for turning even small amounts of heat into electricity. Unfortunately, they don’t quite know why it works. No matter, though, as the finding could one day free up power outlets all over our homes by getting rid of the need for chargers.

The scientists found a way to arrange and bend silicon nanowires in a particular fashion that lets them channel heat energy far more efficiently than current thermoconductors. They believe that the new method might be efficient enough to be able to charge the batteries in small technology.

Imagine a cell phone or iPod which will always work, simply because it’s stored in your pocket. This might even be an end to battery meters.