As I was preparing for the show yesterday, I caught some coverage of CES by a major news network. One of the technology contributors discussed the importance of battery life/battery operation as being a major factor of a solution's success and adoption. I decided to do some quick research on the topic and googled battery life + CES 2012. It returned 42,300,000 results, and 802 specifically tied to news stories.
Of course, battery technology is near and dear to our heart at TI. But, battery power technology as it relates to consumer electronics is typically not a center stage topic at a show like CES. So, imagine our pleasure to hear this topic trend.
No matter how cool and cutting edge the solution is, it is only as cool as its run time. If the run time does not match application requirements or the consumer's requirements, the device has not been optimized for the end-user. A device that quickly loses charge and demands constant charging now becomes a burden instead of a value.
We work closely with manufacturers to assist in maximizing the battery operation of their given solutions. In fact, we released a new battery charger family today to accommodate the high current charge requirements for longer operation of tablets, e-readers and smartphones.
The bq2416x is a family of single cell, dual input Li-Ion battery chargers. The devices are highly integrated single-cell Li-Ion battery chargers with dual inputs, which allow operation from either a USB port or higher power input supply (AC adapter or wireless power input). The two inputs are fully independent from each other and are easily configurable using the I2C interface or stand-alone interface. For more information or to order the bq2416x, visit www.ti.com/bq2416x-pr.