Archive for the 'hardware' Category

Games consoles really are gas guzzlers and the PS3 is an SUV!

Published
by
Tom Raftery
on June 11, 2008
in Uncategorized and hardware
. 3 Comments

PS3 Controller
Creative Commons License photo credit: DeclanTM

James had a post here a couple of weeks back asking “Are Games Consoles Really Gas Guzzlers?“. This was in response to a story in the Sydney Morning Herald where Greenpeace accused games console vendors of ignoring environmental concerns.

James correctly pointed out that the story was light on specifics - there was no data to support the assertion that the games consoles were power hungry.

Yesterday I spotted a Tweet from April Dunford where she said:

Sony Playstation 3 consumes five times more energy than a medium sized refrigerator – 10 times as much as the Wii. http://tinyurl.com/6ft8l5

Intrigued, I followed the link and sure enough the story seems to back GreenPeace’s assertion:

They found out that a medium sized refrigerator of about 12 cu. ft. volume (60 inches in height) will cost $50 a year while Sony Playstation 3 will cost $250 a year even if it is not in use and only turned on. Microsoft XBox came second behind Playstation 3.

The original research was carried out by Australian consumer group Choice. Choice is the largest consumer organization in Australia with over 200,000 subscribers.

Ouch! The PS3 consumes five times more power than a fridge even if not in use? Interestingly the Nintendo Wii only consumes one tenth the power of a PS3. Yet another reason to love the Wii!!!

The target demographic for games consoles are typically the younger generation who are idealistic and really clued into Green. If the console manufacturers really want to differentiate themselves they should get Energy Star certified. The first one who does will reap the rewards.

How Green is my device?

Published
by
Tom Raftery
on May 16, 2008
in hardware
. 5 Comments

I wrote on the LowerFootprint blog last week about how Nortel are putting it up to Cisco on the energy efficiency of their devices.

Nortel have taken it even further since then. They have just launched their Energy Efficiency Calculator. This calculator is supposed to take inputs based on the industry sector you are in, the number of employees or your location and report your potential energy or $ savings were you to choose Nortel equipment over Cisco.

Nortel's Energy Efficiency calculator

However the number of possible inputs are way too limited (only 6 options for each). I’m a director of CIX, a data center based in Cork, Ireland. An ideal target for this kind of campaign, you would have thought. But the lowest number of employees I can select in the calculator is 500!!!, the industry sectors are limited to public sector, financial services or retail, and the location is limited to North America.

Worse there are only six possible outcomes no matter what input you choose! Guys, come on, you are doing yourselves no favours with this ‘calculator’.

And Cisco are pushing back too. Omar Sultan makes the valid point on the Cisco blog that Nortel’s figures are for routers and switches idling (i.e. not routing and switching). These figures typically bear no resemblance to the numbers for the devices when they are in use.

As he says himself:

a note to those of you with data centers: if you have switches in your data center that are plugged in and not doing anything, please unplug them now–it will help you with power/cooling and the polar bears will thank you too

Obviously idle time power consumption is a factor in a devices power rating but so too is power requirements during usage.

The upside is that both these companies are thinking about the carbon footprint of their devices and making quite a bit of noise about it which will have a trickle down effect on other vendors in the space.

All this goes to the point that we need industry agreed standards around how we measure energy efficiency. These then need to be converted to the likes of Energy Star ratings (1-5 where 1 is poor and 5 is super-eco, or similar).

As energy prices climb, these efficiency ratings will increasingly be the primary consideration in IT purchasing decisions.

On CES, Greening, and Gizmodo as Eco-Pranksters

Published
by
monkchips
on January 21, 2008
in Europe, IT, PCs, carbon, datacenter, energy, footprint, global warming and hardware
. 0 Comments

0

Its a laudable goal CeBIT would begin the long road to greening by fully supporting the Climate Savers Computing Initiative. But I should point out the power used at trade shows is just absurd - all those banks of screens talking to nobody in particular.

Should we should reconsider the Gizmodo guys as eco-pranksters (have you seen the video, where all the huge screens start turning off, one after another? Maybe they should join the Green Forge.) I still don’t really understand why so much anger was directed at Gizmodo, people talking about lawsuits and so on. Annoying yes. Business threatening- come on people, get some perspective.

I want me some Blue Sky

Published
by
monkchips
on September 17, 2007
in electrics and hardware
. 0 Comments

I am a Thinkpad fanboy. The machine to me is a stone cold industrial design classic (warm palm issues on the X60s notwithstanding). What is more, you can pour an entire glass of water into the keyboard and you’ll probably get away with it. Thinkpad Looks Good, Works Well. The machines tend to be light, too- thus the current weightless ad campaign.

When it comes to desktop machines I have no such preference but I have to say I am excited by the new Blue Sky thinking from Lenovo. ComputerworldUK has the story here.

A desktop machine which at 45 Watts can potentially be powered by a solar cell - sweet. Perhaps even cooler Lenovo claims its made up of 90 percent reusable or recyclable materials, and its packaging is 90 percent recyclable,so it got a Gold EPEAT rating.

Small is beautiful. Low power is beautiful. Blue sky is beautiful.

photo courtesy of papalar, Creative Commons attribution no derivs license.