Energy efficient computing

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Abstract

The 'modern' PC in fact is a very primitive fan heater. And while many other machines become more and more energy efficient, the energy waste by PC's is rising with each new generation, without people being aware.So computers and their ever growing numbers are contributing more and more to climate change, acid rain etc. and burn more and more oil, coal and atoms.

I'll share what I've learned and demonstrate my energy efficient PC (hope to improve it during WTH). And I think my small but serious effort allows me to appeal to the hard- and software industry to also, finally, take their responsibility: the world needs energy efficient hard- and software now!

Description

Energy efficient computingCould we do an appeal from WTH?

The 'modern' PC in fact is a very primitive fan heater. And while many other machines become more and more energy efficient, the energy waste by PC's is rising with each new generation, without people being aware. Besides the marketing race with GigaHertzes, a very important cause is less and less efficient software.So computers and their ever growing numbers are contributing more and more to climate change, acid rain etc. and burn more and more oil, coal and atoms.

When I needed to upgrade on my lean, optimized 8 years old 266 MHz PC, it was to be able to edit high resolution images and audio. I did not really need anything faster for the day to day tasks. Researching stuff, I was amazed to find the energy use by PC's is constantly rising over the years. Why do I need twice the electricity now, still doing the same job? Something is very wrong here.

The industry gave us Power Management. APM (Advanced Power Management) can switch off my monitor and harddisk. Right, already did that myself 20 years ago. But wait, since 1996 we have ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface). Now Windows can also put my network card in sleep mode. But when my PC is on, I'm online ...That's how far desktop PC 'Power Management' has come in practice. And it needs to be switched on, which is true for only a few percent of PC's out there.

So I build myself a decent PC. Doing my daily tasks, it's underclocked/undervolted and already saves over 50%. When I need the power, I put in high gear and it's still more efficient than a 'normal' PC with the same speed. Now trying to get dynamic throttling working, which should bring much better savings. I only used generally available parts, without modding.

Appeal to the hard- and software industry

When I, being an amateur, can build a energy efficient PC, the industry can do a much better job. And they have proven they can: In laptops they already implement all the latest power saving technologies for over 15 years (indeed, to save the battery, not the climate).

I think my small but serious effort allows me to appeal to the hard- and software industry to also, finally, take their responsibility: the world needs energy efficient hard- and software now!Care to join me? I think the diverse and knowledgable bunch of people at 'What the Hack', demanding decent energy efficiency could have some impact.

I'll tell something about my findings, bring my energy efficient PC to demonstrate, data on energy use by PC's and monitors (gathering these now at http://www.sociamedia.nl/ict/energy) and a lot of background information.

Did you build your own energy saver? Please bring it! Know a lot of hardware and energy saving, PowerNow! and SpeedStep? Into efficient programming? Have contacts in the industry? Please let's meet, maybe start a village at WTH. We could start making How-to's, DIY guides, measure the electricity use of all kind of devices around, etc.

I hope we can draw up an appeal together, somehow present to the WTH community for adoption and send it out.Certainly would not hurt: A new 'Energy Star computer specification' is coming in 2007 and fears are it will not do nearly enough to bring PC energy use down.Worth putting some energy in?

Speakers

• Boyd Noorda

Schedule

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