BERKELEY — The National Science Foundation has awarded a $24.5 million five-year grant to the University of California, Berkeley to fund electronics power-reduction research.

According to published reports, the grant will underwrite a new center that could eventually lead to a million-fold reduction in electronics power consumption.

Researchers will focus on the basic logic switch in computer chips, which demands about 1 V to function well. Electronic circuit wires could operate well on a few millivolts, say the researchers. The goal is to find a lower voltage alternative to modern-day transistors.

The Center for Energy Efficient Electronics Science, or E3S, is one of five multi-institutional science and technology centers to be established in 2010.

UC Berkeley researchers will partner with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Contra Costa College, Los Angeles Trade Technical College and the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.