Green Plug is paving the way for smarter, more efficient power supplies and chargers with its new Green Power Processor (GPP). The startup is billing the tiny, system-on-chip (SoC) as a solution to analog power supplies that draw a constant amount of power regardless of whether the electronics make the best use of all that juice.

In recent years, power supply makers — particularly of the PC and computer server variety — have endeavored to improve efficiency as power- and hence cost-savings technologies have captured the attention of consumers. Green Plug believes that the key to even more drastic power reductions in consumer electronics lies in a microprocessor and in the hands of talented software developers.

Out with the analog, in with the new

A new generation of energy efficient electronics requires a departure from analog power systems and an injection of digital smarts, according to Green Plug’s founder and CEO, Frank P. Paniagua, Jr.

In a company statement, Paniagua explains, “GPP is the ideal combination of mixed signal technology, multi-threaded hardware, advanced low-power features and optimizations that make GPP the right platform for rapid development of modern, efficient power supply designs. Practically speaking, it’s a major salvo in the ‘digital power revolution’ – an acknowledgment that analog adapters have hit a wall where cost and energy consumption are concerned.”

That salvo comes courtesy of based on silicon from Imagination Technologies Group, namely the company’s META MTP Core. According to Green Plug, GPP’s two independent hardware thread opens up a new field of optimizations for power supply designers and devs, in addition to AC/DC and DC/DC power conversions – always a source of power loss.

Green Plug’s Green Power Processor will be available in the second quarter of 2011.