The course of development isn't clear. But I wouldn't be surprised to see, within a year, new power-management IC designs and topologies specifically tailored to work with alternative energy sources that are slowly coming into the picture. I'd expect to see maximum use of chip real estate, with a lot of integration of thermal-management, circuit-protection, and EMI/RFI devices-all rolled into one where possible.

I'd expect to see more attention paid to nonhardware power-management solutions, such as the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface, which has kept a rather low profile since its inception. In line with that, I'm also waiting to see how far the industry takes standardization of various communications protocol architectures with respect to monitoring and control via the Internet. Indeed, I expect great progress for the power sector, despite continual warnings from market watchdog iSuppli (El Segundo, Calif.) as to the state of the markets for power-management components. I don't discount iSuppli's analysis, as far as it goes. Be it a fair analogy or not, however, I liken the power area to the food supply: It's the leader, and if it's not here, we won't be.

No matter the economic pace, technologists will have to work at solutions every day just to maintain the status quo. It's up to us, not God or government.

Ordinarily I may be the standard bearer of gloom and doom. However, to those in the power area, particularly, who have expressed extreme pessimism in recent weeks, I'd say we have nothing to worry about. Power in all of its aspects will always be a viable industry, if for nothing more than to serve as a needed tool to energize the communications devices by which we can express our pessimism to one another.