Technology Group Seeks to Save Power
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Google and Intel are leading a consortium of companies in an effort to reduce the amount of power wasted by personal computers.
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Signs suggest solar power might be reaching a tipping point.
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Companies like Microsoft and Google have committed to improving the power efficiency of equipment they make and use.
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New technology applies electrical fuses to help identify and repair faults.
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New program called Tycoon lets groups jockeying for needed computing power bid for the resources.
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MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.  - Google and Intel are going green, and they hope to drag the world&#39;s computer users with them. The tech giants Tuesday unveiled the Climate Savers Computing Initiative, a voluntary program they hope will make energy-saving computers the norm. A typical PC wastes about half the electricity it draws. Power-saving technology exists but costs about $20 extra per PC, or $30 per back-office server, says Intel Senior Vice President Pat Gelsinger.
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The company's "Energy Smart" products are aimed at customers sensitive to energy costs.
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How non-green is your network? Energy saving has so far focused on PCs, servers and the like, but now networks have been fingered as major wasters of power. An industry group has claimed that Ethernet's poor use of energy could be wasting as much as $450m a year - or 5.8TW/h - in the US. And perhaps three times that much, worldwide.â¦
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The company that put power consumption on the map is thinking of getting out of the expensive business of making chips.
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Computers built with Advanced Micro Devices&#39; Opteron processor soon will be able to take advantage of the same power management technology the company has already built into its laptop and desktop microchips.
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(InfoWorld) - A group of some of the biggest technology companies said they've committed to a plan to improve the power efficiency of equipment they make and use. The Climate Savers Computing Initiative , which includes companies such as Google Inc., Microsoft Corp., Intel Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., Dell Inc. and Sun Microsystems Inc., aims to improve the efficiency of power sources for computers and servers and encourage end users to take advantage of underused power management techniques. Only about 50 percent of the power that leaves a power outlet reaches a PC, because inefficient power cords leak energy, Google's Senior Vice President of Operations, Urs Holzle said Tuesday during a press conference to announce the program. Climate Savers has defined a series of standards for power supply efficiency in servers and PCs that it suggests members adopt between now and July 2010. By 2010, the Climate Savers standard will define a power supply that is above 95 percent efficient, Holzle said. The program asks manufacturing members to build products to the standard and companies to pledge to buy products that have the improved power supplies. The improvement doesn't require the development of new technologies. "This is all do-able today with technology we have and know," Holzle said. The reason that vendors haven't deployed such efficient power cords is because they cost more, said Pat Gelsinger, senior vice president and general manager of Intel's digital enterprise group. A PC with a more efficient power cord would cost around US$20 more and a server an additional $30, he said. To address that price premium, Climate Savers is encouraging energy companies to issue rebates to users that buy products with the more efficient power supplies. Over time that cost premium is expected to drop with volume production, Gelsinger said. In addition, end users will save on their energy bills, also helping to offset the cost, he noted. Another component of Climate Savers is general education and encouragement for end users to take advantage of power management mechanisms that are typically built into existing PCs. "Ninety percent of PCs are capable but aren't utilizing power management techniques," Gelsinger said. "We want to drive IT policy in enterprises," he said. Improving power supply efficiencies and the use of power management techniques along the timeline Climate Savers has described would reduce global carbon emissions from the operation of computers by 54 million tons per year. It would save 62 billion kilowatt hours of energy in 2010, worth around $5.5 billion in energy costs, the group said. In its own data centers, most of Google's servers already have power supplies that comply with the Climate Savers standards for 2008 and 2009, Holzle said. Google began investing in the more expensive supplies because "it's worth spending a bit more on the power supply to save on the energy bill," he said. He defended Google's overall carbon footprint, despite questions about company jets that are hard on the environment. He pointed to the solar power used at the company's headquarters and incentives for employees to buy hybrid cars. In addition, he hinted at future energy-saving programs that the company plans to announce soon. Although Holzle said he knows Google's carbon footprint, he declined to share it. Other companies that are already part of the program include Yahoo Inc., Hitachi Ltd., eBay Inc., Advanced Micro Devices Inc., NEC Corp., Red Hat Inc., Lenovo Group Ltd., Unisys Corp. and the Linux Foundation.
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Hewlett-Packard was the first company to offer a grid storage device, but others are moving to catch up.
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It could be a single malfunctioning power supply. Or, from the other side of the glass, it could be a portent of doom for a technology that would make good use of all those TV channels that no one's broadcasting on, for wireless networking.
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SCIENTISTS have sounded the death knell for the plug and power lead. In a breakthrough that sounds like something out of Star Trek, they have discovered a way of 'beaming' power across a room into a light bulb, mobile phone orlaptop computer without wires or cables.
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Eco-friendly, GreenPower family of hard drive consume less power and go idle when not in use.
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The day may be coming when PCs, cell phones and many other devices will be run without a battery or electrical cord.
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Consumer electronics aren't exactly easy on the environment Â they consume electricity that contributes to global warming, and toxins leach out of them when they end up in landfills.