Taiwan-based manufacturers and suppliers of notebooks are committed to support standardization of power supply units (PSUs) for notebooks. The move will greatly simplify lives of end-users and manufacturers, but will transform PSUs into commodity products and will also force actual manufacturers of power supply devices to compete against each other more fiercely.

Acer, and Asustek Computer and manufacturers such as Quanta Computer, Compal Electronics, Wistron, Pegatron Technology and Inventec have voiced their support to the initiative of the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) to unify power supply units for notebooks, reports DigiTimes web-site.

The IEEE hopes that unified PSUs will lower the demand towards power supply units in general, which means less hazardous waste. Computer suppliers will be able to lower pricing of their devices as a result of elimination of PSUs from the package. PSU manufacturers, nonetheless, will have to find new ways of securing their revenue levels as negative ramifications on their business are easy to guess.

Unfortunately, open standards take years to be ratified by all interested parties. Moreover, there are different types of PSUs and high-end suppliers tend to use higher quality components along with their devices. As a result, a top-of-the-range Lenovo ThinkPad will hardly “appreciate” a power supply unit of a low-end netbook.

Tags: Acer, ASUS, Quanta, Compal, Wistron, Pegatron, Inventec