A chip that controls a balancing propeller on seven microwatts

About this episode

The episode discusses the impact of analog-to-digital converters on battery life in various devices.

Send us Fan Mail Every battery-powered device you own has a quiet energy hog in it that nobody talks about. It is not the processor, it is not the radio, and it is not the screen. It is the analog-to-digital converter, the small piece of circuitry that translates the messy real world into the clean ones and zeros a computer can think about. For thirty years it has been the line item that decides how long your hearing aid, your pacemaker, or your soil sensor lasts on a battery. In March 2026, ...

People in this episode

Host: David Such

Topics covered

• energy consumption
• analog-to-digital converters
• battery-powered devices
• technology
• electronics

Keywords

• energy hog
• battery life
• hearing aid
• pacemaker
• soil sensor

Mentioned in this episode

Products: analog-to-digital converter

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