Low power design winRichard BallCambridge design consultancy OptionExist has won two Smart Awards, including one for Adiabatic Logic, its low power chip spin-off.
The £45,000 award will help the firm test its technique for reducing power when communicating between ICs.
"The next generation of silicon chips are expected to consume proportionally more power communicating with each other than they will during their core computing activity," said Geoff Harvey, Adiabatic's chief technology officer.
The firm's technique could, he believes, reduce chip power consumption by 35 per cent. The next task is to produce test devices to prove the concept. It will then seek to license the technology to chip manufacturers.
Adiabatic's Harvey (left) and Simon Payne (right) received the award from Neville Reyner CBE, deputy chair of the East of England Development Agency.