Google pushes electrical efficiency and simplicity for PCs
Google is calling on the computer industry to
create a simpler and more efficient power supply standard that it says will save
billions of kilowatt-hours of energy a year.
Google is calling on the computer industry to create a simpler and more efficient power supply standard that it says will save billions of kilowatt-hours of energy a year.
In a white paper to be presented on the opening day of the Intel Developer Forum here, two leading data center designers at Google were to argue Tuesday that the industry was mired in inefficiency for historical reasons dating to the introduction of the first IBM personal computer in 1981.
At that time, standard power units, which convert high-voltage alternating current to low-voltage direct current, were required to provide multiple output voltages, something that is no longer necessary in today’s PCs.
The Google engineers and others said there was a significant design flaw, which they described as “overprovisioning,” in PC power supplies. “It’s like putting a 400-horsepower engine in every car just because some cars have to tow large trailers every once in a while,” said Chris Calwell, a technical adviser for a separate project to increase PC efficiency.
The Google white paper argues that the opportunity for power savings is immense - deploying new power supplies in 100 million desktop PCs running eight hours a day, it says, would make it possible to save 40 billion kilowatt-hours over three years, or more than $5 billion of power at California’s energy rates.
Although Google does not plan to enter the personal computer market, the company is a large purchaser of microprocessors and has evolved a highly energy-efficient power supply system for its data centers.
The Google plan calls for a shift from multivoltage power supplies to a single 12-volt standard. Although voltage conversion would still take place on the PC motherboard, the simpler design of such power supply units would make it easier to achieve higher overall efficiency.
Makes way too much sense ever to happen. Even Ted Stevens could understand this. After all, Google is just passing along what they’ve already been doing.
Posted: Wed - September 27, 2006 at 06:57 AM