IEEE to revise laptop battery standard
Safeguarding reliability.
By Peter Cohen, Macworld.com | Macworld.com | Published: 15:30, 08 November 2006
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) will revise its standard for laptop battery production, following a number of high-profile recalls.
The globally recognized as a standards-setting body said it will review IEEE 1625 in order to "further safeguard the reliability" of batteries used in laptop computers. It hopes to complete the review within 18 months.
IEEE 1625, or "IEEE Standard for Rechargeable Batteries for Portable Computing", was approved in 2004. It offers guidelines for battery design and manufacture, and provides ways that companies can evaluate and qualify such batteries, including verifying their quality and reliability.
Despite those guidelines however, millions of Sony batteries have been recalled recently by a number of laptop computer makers, including Dell and Apple, because of a risk of overheating.
Edward Rashba, New Technical Programs manager at the IEEE-SA, said in a statement that Apple and other companies "have indicated strong interest to participate" in the revision to IEEE 1625. The group will meet bi-monthly in the US and Asia to complete the work, starting later this month at Intel's Californian offices.
