Energy crisis seen for tech

["Richard M. Smith" <rms () computerbytesman com>]

The tech industry can start by designing more energy efficient equipment.  
 
Gettting rid of crappy desktop power supplies is a good place to start:
 
 
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/09/towards-more-efficient-computing.html
    Typical [PC] power supplies waste 30-45% of their input power, and
relatively simple modifications can bring this waste down to 10%. 
 
Another good step is proper power management.  For example, my
Comcast/Motorola DVR never turns off and wastes about a 1 KWh of electricity
per day.  What happened to a sleep mode that turns off the hard drive and
runs the CPU in a lower power mode?
 
Richard
 
http://www.mentor.com/products/fpga_pld/events/timing_closure_workshop.cfm?v
=silicon_valley
<http://www.mentor.com/products/fpga_pld/events/timing_closure_workshop.cfm?
v=silicon_valley&p=sponsor_listing&s=1x1&g=fpga&c=fpga_ocid_1329_v1_cfp_581_
ceid_14-1x1-&cmpid=1369>
&p=sponsor_listing&s=1x1&g=fpga&c=fpga_ocid_1329_v1_cfp_581_ceid_14-1x1-&cmp
id=1369
 
Energy crisis seen for tech

VALLEY RIVALS MEET WITH FEDS AMID FEARS THAT GROWTH COULD BE STUNTED


By Sarah Jane Tribble


Mercury News


The nation's biggest technology companies sat down with federal regulators
Wednesday to assess the industry's thirst for power amid fears that volatile
and expensive energy could hinder the growing sector.

The fierce competitors at the table -- including Google, IBM, Microsoft,
Cisco, Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard -- rarely gather to talk
strategy. But they were lured by the chance to influence the development of
national energy standards.

``I think we may be at the beginning of a potential energy crisis for the IT
sector,'' Victor Varney, a vice president for Silicon Graphics, told the
regulators. ``It's clearly coming.''

Already, local companies are adjusting growth plans, and data centers have
moved out of California for more stable power supplies, he said.

Google's Bill Weihl, who works with energy strategy engineering and
operations, countered that the crisis isn't upon the industry yet but is
possible in the next five to 10 years if adequate and reliable energy
supplies are not ensured.

The U.S. Department of Energy, which measures power use in various
industries, hopes to learn from the companies, and to design guidelines for
building efficient facilities and technology, said Andrew Karsner, assistant
secretary of energy efficiency and renewable energy for the department. He
also is considering eventually auditing energy use in technology facilities,
much like the department's audits of steel and paper plants.

The round table, hosted by Advanced Micro Devices, was the first meeting in
what Karsner called a public and private partnership. Research firm Gartner
estimates that within two years about half of the world's data centers will
have insufficient power and cooling capacity to service the high-density
servers companies need to keep up with demand for their services and
products.

The use of electricity plays a vital role in powering the offices,
research-and-development laboratories and massive data centers for the
technology sector, which is one of America's fastest-growing industries.

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