18-09-2014, 10:55 AM
Green Computing
Green computing.doc (Size: 501.5 KB / Downloads: 18)
Introduction
Green computing is the study and practice of using computing resources efficiently. The primary objective of such a program is to account for the “triple bottom line” (People, Planet, Profit), an expanded spectrum of values and criteria for measuring organizational (and societal) success. The goals are similar to green chemistry; which is trying to reduce the use of hazardous materials, maximize energy efficiency during the product's lifetime, and promote recyclability or biodegradability of products and factory waste. Modern IT systems rely upon a complicated mix of people, networks and hardware; as such, a green computing initiative must be systemic in nature, and address increasingly sophisticated problems. Elements of such as solution may comprise items such as end user satisfaction, management restructuring, regulatory compliance, disposal of waste, telecommuting, virtualization of server resources, energy use, thin client solutions, and return on investment (ROI).
Virtualization and Server Based Computing reduces emissions, by utilizing fewer servers, power and cooling and providing a low-power/low-cost thin client on the users desktop. All while centralizing and streamlining administration and providing high availability. Computers overall now account for about 2% of worldwide energy usage. By the end of 2008, according to Gartner, Inc. analysts, half of the world’s datacenters won’t have enough energy capacity to meet the power and cooling requirements of the latest high-density computing equipment, such as blade servers. In addition, Gartner estimates that energy bills, which traditionally have accounted for less than 10% of an overall IT budget, soon could account for more than half. In the U.S., for example, consumption of electricity by IT has doubled since 2000 and now comprises 3% of total electricity consumed nationally. Electrical power for datacenter servers is only part of the problem. Non-IT devices also consume datacenter power, including transformers, uninterruptible power supplies, power wiring, fans, air conditioners, pumps, humidifiers, and lighting
History of Green Computing
In 1992, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency launched Energy Star, a voluntary labeling program which is designed to promote and recognize energy-efficiency in monitors, climate control equipment, and other technologies. This resulted in the widespread adoption of sleep mode among consumer electronics. The term "green computing" was probably coined shortly after the Energy Star program began; there are several USENET posts dating back to 1992 which use the term in this manner. Concurrently, the Swedish organization TCO Development launched the TCO Certification program to promote low magnetic and electrical emissions from CRT-based computer displays; this program was later expanded to include criteria on energy consumption, ergonomics, and the use of hazardous materials in construction.
When it comes to PC disposal, it is necessary to know everything there is to know in order to be involved in green computing. Basically, the whole green aspect came about quite a few years back when the news that the environment was not a renewable resource really hit home and people started realizing that they had to do their part to protect the environment.
Basically, the efficient use of computers and computing is what green computing is all about. The triple bottom line is what is important when it comes to anything green and the same goes for green computing. This considers social responsibility, economic viability and the impact on the environment. Many businesses simply focus on a bottom line, rather than a green triple bottom line, of economic viability when it comes to computers. The idea is to make the whole process surrounding computers friendlier to the environment, economy, and society. This means manufacturers create computers in a way that reflects the triple bottom line positively. Once computers are sold businesses or people use them in a green way by reducing power usage and disposing of them properly or recycling them. The idea is to make computers from beginning to end a green product.
From the Government
Many governmental agencies have continued to implement standards and regulations that encourage green computing. The Energy Star program was revised in October 2006 to include stricter efficiency requirements for computer equipment The European Union's directives 2002/95/EC (RoHS), on the reduction of hazardous substances, and 2002/96/EC (WEEE) on waste electrical and electronic equipment required the substitution of heavy metals and flame retardants like PBBs and PBDEs in all electronic equipment put on the market starting on July 1, 2006. The directives placed responsibility on manufacturers for the gathering and recycling of old equipment (the Producer Responsibility model).
The Demons behind Green Computing
• Power supply: Desktop computer power supplies (PSUs) are generally 70–75% efficient, dissipating the remaining energy as heat. An industry initiative called 80 PLUS certifies PSUs that are at least 80% efficient; typically these models are drop-in replacements for older, less efficient PSUs of the same form factor. As of July 20, 2007, all new Energy Star 4.0-certified desktop PSUs must be at least 80% efficient.
• Storage: Smaller form factor (e.g. 2.5 inch) hard disk drives often consume less power than physically larger drives. Unlike hard disk drives, solid-state drives store data in flash memory or DRAM. With no moving parts, power consumption may be reduced somewhat for low capacity flash based devices. Even at modest sizes, DRAM based SSDs may use more power than hard disks, (e.g., 4GB i-RAM uses more power and space than laptop drives). Flash based drives are generally slower for writing than hard disks.
Video card: A fast GPU may be the largest power consumer in a computer. Energy efficient display options include: No video cards used in a shared terminal, shared thin client, or desktop sharing software if display required.
Use motherboard video output - typically low 3D performance and low power.
Reuse an older video card that uses little power; many do not require heat sinks or fans.
Select a GPU based on average wattage or performance per watt.
Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. Hundreds of millions of users access our services through the web, and supporting this traffic requires lots of computers. We strive to offer great internet services while taking our energy use very seriously. That's why, almost a decade ago; we started our efforts to make our computing infrastructure as sustainable as possible. Today we are operating what we believe to be the world's most efficient data centers.
The graph below shows that our Google-designed data centers use considerably less energy - both for the servers and the facility itself - than a typical data center. As a result, the energy used per Google search is minimal. In fact, in the time it takes to do a Google search, your own personal computer will use more energy than we will use to answer your
Solar computing
Amid the international race toward alternative-energy sources, VIA is setting its eyes on the sun, and the company's Solar Computing initiative is a significant part of its green-computing projects. For that purpose, VIA partnered with Motech Industries, one of the largest producers of solar cells worldwide. Solar cells fit VIA are power-efficient silicon, platform, and system technologies and enable the company to develop fully solar-powered devices that are nonpolluting, silent, and highly reliable. Solar cells require very little maintenance throughout their lifetime, and once initial installation costs are covered, they provide energy at virtually no cost. Worldwide production of solar cells has increased rapidly over the last few years; and as more governments begin to recognize the benefits of solar power, and the development of photovoltaic technologies goes on, costs are expected to continue to decline. As part of VIA's “pc-1” initiative, the company established the first-ever solar-powered cyber community center in the South Pacific, powered entirely by solar technology.
Sony
Sony has developed an environmentally friendly prototype battery that runs on sugars and can generate enough electricity to power a music player and a pair of speakers, the Japanese company said. The bio battery's casing is made of a vegetable-based plastic. It measures an inch and a half along each edge and works by pouring sugar solution into the unit; where enzymes break it down to generate electricity. Test cells had an output of 50 mill watts. Sugar is a naturally occurring energy source produced by plants through photosynthesis. It is therefore regenerative, and can be found in most areas of the earth, underlining the potential for sugar-based batteries as an ecologically friendly energy device of the future
Green Computing Tips
• Use LCD monitors instead of CRT monitors, which consume a lot more electricity. LCD monitors uses three times less when active, and ten times less energy when in sleep mode.
• Use laptops instead of desktop computers, also cuts down on energy usage. The Everex Step Note NC1501 is touted as the world's most energy efficient notebook computer, using only 12W peak power. By comparison, a desktop model uses 200-400 watts.
• If a laptop is not feasible, look for the Energy Star label when purchasing a computer. New US government regulations make this more important than it's been for the past fifteen years.
• Disable your screen saver. Burn-in is not an issue with modern monitors, and screen savers can prevent your monitor and computer from going into idle/sleep mode.
• Enable the power management features on your computer, to turn off components such as the monitor, fans and hard drive when idle. On Windows, go to Control Panel / Power Options. On OS X, go to System Preferences / Energy Saver.
• Switch off the monitor, printer, scanner and other peripherals when not in use.
Tips for Green Home Computing:
• Don’t check your email on a PC as far as possible – use a mobile device
• Never leave your PC switched on at the wall, or on standby
• Take that CRT monitor to the recycling centre
• Always switch off speakers, modem, monitor at the wall socket if not using
• Use natural ventilation in the computer room
• Only connect to the internet when you know you will use the connection
• Get all family members to log on to the WiFi network at the same time
• Consider buying a newer, more energy efficient computer or low power notebook
• Surf at cafes where they only have a single WiFi modem
Tips for Green Office Computing:
• User blade servers that run very low temperature chips to save cooling
• Tell employees to switch everything off at night
• Use smart thermostats in the server room to save cost
• Use low power thin client PCs that use on-demand applications
• Switch to LCD screens to cut power usage
• Only buy Green label PCs and hardware that can be completely recycled.
• Recycle all internal paper, and reprint on the back of used single side waste
Future is Green
India Inc is already facing an energy crisis. Today most large Data Centers (DC) consume 10-100 times more energy per square foot than a typical office building and most of these data centers have become chillers (over cooled), which again eats into power needed to cool them. Now, emerging high density computer systems and consolidation of IT resources into fewer DCs are stretching the limits. That is why one would witness that DCs are evolving at a faster rate due to which customers have to modify or redesign their DC every five years. Customers are looking for solutions that adapt to the changing needs of the data center without needing additional investment. The existing scenario for DC includes reviewing installed power sources and finding any technical solutions that can reduce the energy demand. For DCs that are in the design stage, it is vital to provision for such devices, or to use the latest power conditioning equipment. One should not go only by the specifications; it is a good idea to measure the power output from a sample device and monitor it. A deep study on the efficiency of the devices being used can prove helpful. Even a one or two percent drop in power consumption can result in substantial cost savings in the long run. It is this scenario that is forcing many IT departments to evaluate their DC power consumption and find ways to become more energy-efficient. In today’s 24x7 world of information availability, on-demand services, and round-the-clock commerce sites, companies increasingly are adding high-performance servers, storage and other equipment to their data centers to satisfy user and customer demand. As a result, companies find that they need more and more power to run and cool this equipment. At the same time, the cost of electricity is on the rise. Many companies are trying to be good corporate citizens by becoming green (or at least greener).
Large DCs are looking at pocketing more green into their pocket. It is primarily because they want to minimize the risk in the DC as heat generation goes higher, leading to greater power consumption. So DCs need to go in for optimization of power as well as cooling. There is a strong possibility that organizations will look at green technologies to reduce their data center costs without even knowing it and that because most of the bigger and multiple
One thing that each and every DC manager agrees upon is that power and cooling are the two important factors required for the smooth functioning of a DC. Data center power and cooling go hand-in-hand. And it will be right to say that based on the requirement per rack, the cooling and power management must be designed at the rack level to avoid any wastage of energy within a data center. Today cooling contributes nearly 35 to 40% of total DC energy consumption and if we see the distribution of IT servers within a rack in a data center, we will find that the loads are unequally distributed. This means that there may be a few racks that generate 3/4 kW to 15 kW per rack of heat load. The racks with more than 10 kW load are the extreme density racks and are required to be cooled for reliability within the DC. Since the temperature in the room is not evenly distributed, it needs supplemental cooling at the source where the heat is being generated. Several trends are driving up DC power requirements significantly. First, most companies need more computing power to run their Web sites and business and financial applications, for which servers often must run round-the-clock. Second, newer computers use higher performing processors that consume more electricity. And third, there is a trend to physically consolidate servers by moving to high-density rack and blade servers, packing more processing power into smaller spaces within data centers.It have been noted that up to 40% of the operating costs of a building that houses a DC could be power- and cooling-related expenses. If nothing changes, power and cooling issues (and costs) are likely to get worse in the future. That’s because the price of electricity is expected to rise, and many newer systems are expected to require more power. Faced with growing power consumption requirements to run and cool DC equipment, companies are looking for ways to reduce electrical usage and costs. To figure out where to focus attention on energy, one must understand what contributes to power consumption.
Lawn PC
Technology isn’t always on the same page with sustainability. Still when green innovation transforms the trajectory, even we find ourselves inclining towards the novelty. Such is the LawnPC, which visions to transform computing in the near future. The concept PC from David Veldkamp is powered by the solar cells attached to the grass like lawn on the PC, made from natural cotton fabric these blades transfer the generated 60 watts of energy down to the plug-in button at the bottom each blade. The concept requires no cooling fans, just put it where natural light and air are readily available and then leave rest on this wirelessly functional device that’ll give you the cleanest computing all the time.
Renewable energy is the need of the hour and the form in which it has been used here is simply stunning. 60 Watts of solar energy per hour gets a thumb up from our side. Geeks like us on that side wouldn’t be satisfied with the concept we know, but then guys, just give Designer David Veldkamp the breather to have initiated in making something with a likely future
Conclusion
Green Computing is on the radar screens of CIOs, but its not primarily motivated by eco-friendlyness,” says Jim Noble, CIO of Altria, parent company of Philip Morris and Kraft Foods. “The primary motivation is technology’s cost”. The good news for Mother Earth is that there are a lot of money-saving, eco-friendly steps just waiting for IT execs to take