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Exactly one year ago Hitachi demonstrated the first PDA to integrate a fuel cell battery. A fuel cell is a revolutionary electro-chemical device that converts the chemical energy of hydrogen, ethanol, or methanol (for example) into electrical energy and water for cleaner and longer-lasting power than current battery technologies.

Since that time, however, the fuel cell front has been kind of quite. And its not any clearer as to when these batteries may finally find their way into our mobile devices.

Today, Hitachi rival Toshiba—another company with its hands in the fuel cell pie—introduced a very advanced battery based on current Lithium Ion technology.

Dubbed Super Charge, the Japanese company's new battery amazingly recharges to 80 percent capacity in less than a minute, and all-the-way in only a few minutes. That's compared to the one to four hours or more it usually takes for current Lithium Ion batteries to absorb that amount of juice.

Super Charge’s lifespan is also considerably longer than current Lithium Ion models: 1,000 charges and depletions reduces capacity by only 1 percent. Toshiba asserts the battery is even environmentally friendly, as its quick charging time can reduce carbon-dioxide emissions.

The battery's impressive performance is the result of the implementation of what Toshiba calls nano-particles, which help to prevent the rapid reduction of organic liquid electrolytes when recharging. Consequently, these particles can absorb and store enormous quantities of lithium ions without quickly deteriorating in the electrode.

Toshiba said the Super Charge battery should hit the market sometime next year, with initial deployments in the industrial and automotive sectors.

Obviously, this type of battery would be great for PDAs, smartphones, cell phones, laptops and any other type of mobile device. The relatively small size (2.4 x 1.4 x 0.21 in/6.2 x 3.5 x 0.4 cm) of Toshiba's 600mAh prototype and the company's ongoing interests in the mobile arena strongly indicate it has these types of applications in mind.