GreenComputers.info

interconsolutions asked:

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Paul E Steinberg asked:


You can help the environment by making one simple decision. By going green with your computers. This is done by choosing notebooks computers that are environmentally friendly and long on charge. New “green laptops” take the idea of an environmentally friendly notebook computer even further. They are smaller than other notebooks, last longer on a charge, and comply with most environmental regulations. These ultraportble, small footprint, lighter weight notebooks are inherently “greener” than heavier, larger footprint products for a few reasons: They are designed to deliver the desired performance while consuming fewer materials for manufacturing and less energy for shipment and distribution. Packaging requirements are also reduced, saving materials and energy. Laptops don’t use as much power as a desktop, mostly because the processor is only drawing about 35W or less, compared to about 65W or more for a desktop CPU. The added benefit is that your electrical bill won’t be as high either.

Less Hazardous Components

Although notebooks are typically much more energy efficient than desktops. They are, however, no greener than desktops in other regards. They typically contain the same hazardous components, and they are not easily recycled. However, a few “greener” notebook computers are now on the market.

Lenovo’s Thinkpad X300 is the company’s first EPEAT (Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool) Gold certified notebook. Only 15 notebooks have achieved this rating to date. The X300 uses mercury free LEDs to illuminate its display. This saves energy, and allows for a thinner display. It uses a solid state drive, which is much lighter, more reliable and faster than a conventional hard drive. It also contains a low voltage processor and has improved “battery stretch” software for energy savings. It meets the Energy Star 4.0 criteria and is 25% more efficient than Lenovo’s previous generation notebooks. The packaging materials for the X300 are 90% recyclable, and the use of toxic materials such as cadmium, lead, and arsenic have been reduced.

The MacBook Air is one of Apple’s greenest computers. The Air’s display was the first from Apple to be mercury and arsenic free. The all aluminum case was also a good choice as aluminum is easily recyclable and highly desirable by recyclers. The Air qualified for a Silver EPEAT rating (all the circuit boards are bromide and PVC free). It’s also Energy Star 4.0 certified. On PC Magazine’s energy consumption tests, the 14 Watts it produced while idle is consistent with Energy Star’s 14 Watt (and under) requirement. The reading was taken while the system was running Leopard after 15 minutes of idle time. You can get the Macbook Air fitted with a 64GB solid state drive, which will further reduces its power requirements. Apple paid attention to the retail packaging of this machine, and reduced it by 50%.

Green Computing Is Here To Stay

Any way you slice it, green computing is here to stay. Laptops will get more efficient, smaller, and safer for the planet. EPA estimates that in the next five years purchases of EPEAT registered computers could reduce hazardous waste by 4 million pounds and save enough energy to power two million homes.

Pattrick Savarna asked:


Ever heard of a personal computer which can be directly plugged into your wall power socket and you will see no need of your computer furniture anymore?

Or, ever heard of a computer which costs you $50 only when you buy in dozens or its price doubles up if bought in singles or something which uses power as low as 5 watts only?

Did you say it is a crazy question? If you think that anybody body who talks about such a computer might have gone mad, then better you go for a detailed research, or at least surf the official site of Marvell semiconductor, before going that much judgmental.

Do the investigation and you will find that Marvell, a famous manufacture of semiconductors, just, sincerely a fortnight ago, has launched a computer that looks like a plug and can be plugged into the wall too.

Moreover, it has all those computer accessories and features which make a full-fledged computer once they combine together. After all how can you call something a computer unless it has a 1.2GHz Marvell Kirkwood processor, a spacious storage device, a powerful memory drive and so and so. More clearly, it has a 512MB DRAM and 512 megabytes of flash memory storage. However it runs with Linux only. Mind it!

So it has got all what a modern computer should have. Thus this innovative computer is set to give you all the services which are a trademark job of a networked computer. Amazingly, the name sounds a bit of Indian. SheevaPlug! What do you say?

As per its usage, according to the manufacturer, Marvell semiconductor in this case, you can use this plug computer as a home server computer. Definitely, to do so, you have to plug your router and USB flash drive or external hard drive into your SheevaPlug simply. This plug computer comes with a USB 2.0 port.

Regarding size, it is as small as you can think of in terms of a computer. After all, you can’t hang a desktop on a wall, isn’t it? However, its small size is never a constraint in its performance. Marvell calls it as a computer with “a high-end performance.”

One thing more! Won’t you call it an eco-friendly computer? Why…..? Your “why” should know that this plug computer uses only 5 watts, gives efficient service and possesses a very small built so extremely less hardware garbage once becomes unusable.

Of course, it has got all the features of a befitting green computer. However, ironically it may sound, it is completely white regarding its exteriors. Moreover, once you plan to get connected to a network , you can easily do it via Gigabit Ethernet.

Joe Mullich asked:


“Green computing” isn’t just about saving the world for the next generation. The primary focus is cutting costs, improving efficiency, and getting near-term, measurable results.

The following questions and answers address the business benefits of eco-friendly computing and show strategies for how you can profit by going green.

What is the business rationale for green computing? Power consumption of data centers doubled between 2000 and 2005. Currently, energy costs take up one tenth of the typical IT budget. According to studies, that could leap to 50 percent within a few years.

The upshot, Gartner says, is that 80 percent of the world’s data centers are now constrained by heat, space, and power requirements. Going green has become a business necessity to meet user demands within budget.

How much power is wasted in data centers? Gartner estimates that anywhere from 30 to 60 percent of energy in data centers is wasted. Inefficient cooling systems are one problem. In addition to addressing this issue, another important step is to consolidate data centers by reducing hardware footprints and physical servers through virtualization.

Using that approach, Sun Microsystems just finished building three new energy efficient datacenters in the United States, India, and the United Kingdom. The three-pronged formula:

1. Assess Datacenter.

2. Optimize Infrastructure.

3. Deploy Virtualization Technologies.

The results were dramatic: Sun consolidated 738 storage devices to 225, yet increased storage capacity by 244 percent. The company also consolidated 2,177 servers to 1,240, yet increased compute power by 456 percent.

As a result of these changes, energy costs were cut by over 60 percent, saving more than $860,000 in the first nine months. On top of that, the initiatives earned nearly $1 million in rebates and awards from Silicon Valley Power.

What are the best practices in green computing? In August, the Environmental Protection Agency issued a report at the behest of Congress recommending ways to reduce energy costs in data centers. The 133-page reports identifies three sets of guidelines that define a data center: improved practices, best practices, and state of the art practices.

* Improved practices include low or no-cost activities, such as shutting down servers that are in use.

* Best practices revolve around things like “energy efficient” servers” and buying more efficient uninterruptible power supplies.

* State of the art practices entail aggressively consolidating servers and storage, while enabling power management at the data center of applications, servers and equipment for networking and storage.

This report can serve as a good model for companies wishing to move to a higher level of eco-friendliness. “It’s a function of [what] any organization needs to do good planning and implementation of best practices that currently exist, Andrew Fanara, head of the EPA Energy Star development team told reporters.

What is the biggest deterrent to green computing? As the EPA report states, “people” issues trump technology. At many companies, the facilities management department makes decisions on energy costs and availability but has little to do with IT decisions. In the past, CIOs often had no idea about rising energy bills until power and cooling issues prevented them from adding servers to the data center. That is changing quickly. “More chief financial officers are becoming aware of the energy bill and are starting to hold CIOs responsible,” says David Douglas, Vice-President of Eco-responsibility at Sun Microsystems.

What bottom-line benefits have companies enjoyed from going green? The case studies of companies profiting from green computing are growing fast. For example, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, one of the world’s largest medical research facilities, is using a high-performance computing grid to make discoveries that could lead to personalized medical treatments for life-threatening diseases. What’s more, this solution reduced power by 67 percent when systems are not in use

Verizon turned to energy-efficient servers, which need only one-twentieth of the power of the average PC, to reduce the overall electric power bills at new call centers by about one-third. “At one call center, we received a call from our local utility on the morning after we replaced PCs” with new energy-efficient ones, says Carl Eberling, Verizon Wireless, Vice President of IT. “They were concerned about the sharp drop off in our power consumption.”