Mon, Jul 23, 2007 9:05 EDT

Energy Efficiency 4.0

Topic: Infrastructure

Current Rating: Comments: 0

Hardware efficiency improvement is the primary target of the new Energy Star 4.0 specifications that went in effect this past Friday, but improvements to network-level power management are also being addressed in the new specifications. The new standards regulate energy performance of external and internal power supplies. They also give power consumption specs for idle, sleep and standby modes for a number of different devices, including PCs, desktops and gaming consoles.

In an email, Maria Vargas, an Energy Star spokesperson, told me that computers meeting the new requirements will save energy in all modes of operation. The EPA predicts businesses and consumers will save more than $1.8 million over the next five years. Reductions in greenhouse gas emissions could be equivalent to taking 3 million automobiles off the road.

Regulations for computers in idle mode are new; previous standards only addressed sleep and standby modes. Kent Dunn, director of energy & OEM partnerships at Verdiem, a PC power management vendor, told me that computers spend the majority of their time in the idle state. The Natural Resources Defense Council estimates that 90 percent of energy used by desktops occurs during the idle mode.

In an attempt to reduce instances of IT admins disabling power management features, the new specifications will require OEMs to educate users about power management. All of this is good news for Verdiem. Dunn says now that the onus is on manufacturers to teach their users about network management, Verdiem’s product, SURVEYOR, will become even more valuable to OEMs.

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