The Japanese government will fund an ambitious project in where domestic companies will design a new energy efficient processor (CPU), challenging Intel. The alliance includes big names such as Fujitsu, Toshiba, Panasonic, Renesas Technology, NEC, Hitachi and Canon ( CAJ - news - people ). All have agreed to pool their resources together to create a new, standardized, power-saving central processing units (CPU) which could be used within the entire industry for a wide range of consumer electronics by the end of fiscal 2012, the evening edition of Nikkei Business News reported Thursday.

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry support the super CPU project, with an initial capital of 3-4 billion yen.

The lead designer of the new chip is Hironori Kasahara, professor of computer science at Waseda University.

According to the plan, each of the Japanese chip makers will produce their own CPU that is compatible with the energy-saving software invented by Kasahara.A group of engineers will then create a prototype that runs on solar cells that will use less than 70% of the power consumed by normal ones. The new CPU could still be able to function even when there are prolonged periods of power shortage during natural disaster, the Nikkei added.

The super Japanese CPU could be incorporated into different brands of televisions, digital cameras, and other electronic appliances.