May 2007 Archives

Oh my.

Environmentalists today, still fuming over the United States' great Kyoto snub, undoubtedly took notice as President Bush disclosed plans for a series of international talks aimed at setting goals to reduce greenhouse gasses, starting with the G-8 summit this June.

That's right, reduce greenhouse gasses. Among those expected to participate, besides the G8, are China and India, also big (and growing) spewers of carbon. And technology, as a means to combat global warming, will be a major theme.

``My proposal is this: By the end of next year America and other nations will set a long-term global goal for reducing greenhouse gases,'' Bush said in an address that set out the U.S. agenda during next week's meeting of the Group of Eight industrial nations in Heiligendamm, Germany. The talks would ``establish a new framework'' for when the Kyoto Protocol on emissions expires in 2012.

Is that pessimism warranted or is the US witnessing a serious shift in policy? Stay tuned to see how this all shakes out...

More at GreenBiz and Forbes.

Promising to "bring clarity to a hot topic," the Discovery Channel is airing a new show this summer hosted by Tom Brokaw, Global Warming: What You Need to Know. Strangely they feel compelled to give the title the ALL CAPS treatment on their site -- we'll spare you -- but at least they don't tiptoe around the term (*ahem* climate change).

Here's what the show has in store:

The two-hour special will decode the buzzwords and arm viewers with an arsenal of clear definitions and visual depictions to explain the greenhouse effect, carbon dioxide emissions, CFCs, effects on weather and rising sea levels. CGI and cutting-edge climate computer models will help viewers see into the future at a world significantly changed by unchecked global warming.

Nothing like CGI to put a global crisis in perspective! With Tom Brokaw onboard, though, it's fair to assume that the show will take an evenhanded approach to the topic. And for the geeks, there's this:

Finally, the special will look at technical solutions, both great and small, from giant gas injection rigs in the ocean, to more efficient architecture in cities, to what the average American family can do to slow global warming.

Global Warming: What You Need to Know premiers on Sunday, July 16, at 9 pm Eastern. Set your Tivos accordingly.

What's 80 Plus? Glad you asked!

An 80 Plus power supply converts at least 80 percent of the energy it draws into usable power for a computer's components. You may not be aware, but most power supplies aren't nearly as efficient, meaning that they leave a lot of power on the table. And that adds up to a lot of wasted electricity.

EcoGeek reports that Dell is popping pricier 80 Plus power supplies (there's always a catch) into Optifast 740 and 745 models, with more on the way. They also ship with energy saving features enabled by default.

Of course, you may not want to buy a new Dell. No worries there either. For a look at an aftermarket option, check out this SysOpt.com review of the Antec EarthWatts 500.

Keeping your data center above 70 degrees Fahrenheit?!

While many an IT staffer would chalk you off as a loon, KC Mares, director of Yahoo data center strategy, thinks that threshold is an antiquated notion. PC World's Jon Brodkin writes:

Data centers don't need to be kept at 70 degrees Fahrenheit anyway, as many are, he says. They can survive just fine at 85 degrees, he says. Yahoo doesn't use air conditioning to cool data centers for two-thirds of each year.

Green to Gold author Andrew Winston -- who's been making the rounds of late -- chimes in with a couple of tips including this gem: adding the power bill to the CIO's budget. That's so loony, it just might work!

The New York Times is carrying a story on Ray Anderson and his quest to take his carpet tile company, Interface, to new heights of efficiency and sustainability. His company generates $1.1 billion in sales, making it the biggest carpet tile (a.k.a. modular carpet) maker in the world. Moreover, he's out to disprove that there's a tradeoff between the environment and the economy.

"Oh, yay, carpeting. How exciting..." you're thinking (complete with eye roll). Well, money talks, which is why I'll leave you with this one nugget before you go read the article (registration required) and view the informative video.

He says Interface sustainability efforts have saved the company more than $336 million since 1995.

Not too shabby!

Of course, it helped that he controlled a majority of voting shares, basically making his word law. Nevertheless, it's a fascinating study of how a business can surmount some big hurdles and still emerge a cleaner organization with benefits that even extend to the bottom line.

Here's more info on Interface's sustainability efforts.

[via Wired Blog Network]

Intel's going "100 percent lead-free" in its entire 45 nanometer high-k metal gate (Hi-k) line, the top processor maker announced today.

Lead is used in a variety of micro-electronic "packages" and the "bumps" that attach an Intel chip to the packages. Packages wrap around the chip and ultimately connect it to the motherboard. Different types of packages are used for processors targeted at specific market segments, including mobile, desktop and server. Package designs include pin grid array, ball grid array and land grid array, and all are 100 percent lead-free in Intel's 45nm Hi-k technology generation. In 2008, the company will also transition its 65nm chipset products to 100 percent lead-free technology.

Lead is poisonous, which is why they advise against letting toddlers feast on old paint chips. And though no one is likely to go licking computer chips -- and shame on you if you do -- the bigger fear is that the lead solder within the chips may leech into the ecosystem.

What will take its place?

To replace the remaining 5 percent (about .02 grams) of lead solder historically found in the first-level interconnect -- the solder joint that connects the silicon die to the package substrate -- in processor packages, Intel will use a tin/silver/copper alloy. It is the way in which Intel will implement these new materials to replace the tin/lead solder that is the "secret sauce" of the company's solution. Because of the complex interconnect structure of Intel's advanced silicon technologies, a great deal of engineering work was required to remove the remaining lead in Intel's processor packages and integrate a new solder alloy system.

Secret sauce, indeed!

[via TG Daily]

Update: I have just been informed that AMD went lead-free ages ago.

Going the energy efficiency route usually means making a few sacrifices along the way. Big Blue is telling data center operators to sacrifice nothing.

IBM's homegrown Power processor line is taking its silicon to new heights -- 4.7 GHz for a dual-core, 65 nm, 790 million transistor chip to be exact -- and offering double processing power of its Power5 predecessor without increasing power consumption. In practical terms, this means that Power6 servers, like the upcoming System p 570, will cost less to operate. IBM envisions 6-figure yearly savings for a rack full of the Power6 machines:

IBM calculates that 30 SunFire v890s can be consolidated into a single rack of the new IBM machine, saving more than $100,000 per year on energy costs.

This is achieved by a couple of chip design innovations:

• Separating circuits that can’t support low voltage operation onto their own power supply “rails,” allowing IBM to dramatically reduce power for the rest of the chip.

• Voltage/frequency “slewing,” enabling the chip to lower electricity consumption by up to 50 percent, with minimal performance impact.

• A new method of chip design that enables POWER6 to operate at low voltages, allowing the same chip to be used in low power blade environments as well as large, high-performance symmetric multiprocessing machines. The chip has configurable bandwidth, enabling customers to choose maximum performance or minimal cost.
  

It's also toppling computing records, which comes as no surprise if you happen to keep an eye on the Top500. They also tout the chip's generous, slurp-the-entire-iTunes-catalog-in-a-minute bandwidth of 300 gigabytes per second. Well, that's a handy statistic, but what they really meant to say is that it's 30 times the bandwidth of HP's Itanium. Ouch!

Nothing like some juicy sniping to add drama to IT.

Currently, lighting accounts for 22 percent of the nation's electricity usage, according to the DoE. So it's little wonder that long-lasting, energy efficient bulbs would go a long way to easing the burden on our power grids. Hence, the attention lavished on CFLs.

But some are already looking past CFLs to LEDs. Consumerist points to a nice LED Lighting 101 article over at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Currently, price is what's keeping these from mass market adoption. However, with the cost of white LEDs dropping fast, consumer-friendly units may be only a couple of years away.

Facilities managers and business leaders are increasingly jumping on the energy efficiency bandwagon but not necessarily as a nod to Mother Earth.

The Business Journal of Milwaukee reports that among North American facilities management execs, cost savings trumps environmentalism.

Fifty-two percent of the executives surveyed say costs savings as either entirely or somewhat the driver for their decision to invest in energy efficiency measures. Thirty-five percent say cost savings and environmental responsibility are equal motivators, while only 13 percent cite environmental concern as the greater motivator.

Why should it matter to IT folk? In data centers, the power and cooling requirements of the physical structure are closely linked to those of the servers, storage systems and infrastructure devices housed within. And as you can guess, they are collectively responsible for a big chunk of the electric bill.

Eight hours between charges? Yes, if the specs on Sony's new VAIO TZ notebooks are accurate.

Wired and Engadget -- yes the very same blog that briefly bit a chunk off Apple's market cap to the tune of billions yesterday -- write about the ultraportable's novel power saving features, including an optional 32 GB solid state drive (SSD) that takes the place of an optical drive. This setup allows the machine to tap flash memory for the OS and commonly used software components, only spinning up the drives when necessary.

The result, when matched with a power efficient 1.2Ghz Celeron M 443, is a machine that gets 8 hours out of its batteries. If you're in Japan on May 26, you can pick one up for a cool ¥164,800 ($1,365) for a base model (most likely without the SSD goodness).

New Scientist has gathered up "26 most common climate myths and misconceptions." Among them is the contention that Hurricane Katrina was caused by global warming. Not so fast!

The chaotic nature of weather makes it impossible to prove that any single event such as Hurricane Katrina is due to global warming. It is also impossible to prove that global warming did not play a part, so debates about the causes of individual events are futile.

Other environmentally thorny topics include Antarctica is getting cooler, not warmer, disproving global warming; Mars and Pluto are warming too; and It was warmer during the Medieval period, with vineyards in England.

If as an environmentalist you're sick of seeing another New England millionaire family renovate a converted barn or oceanfront estate on This Old House, then PBS has the cure. On June 5th, you can watch host Kevin Contreras build his dream home in Santa Barbara on Building Green. How's that for an improvement!

All joking aside, the decidedly left-coast digs were constructed in an eco-friendly way. According to the show's site, "the house you see here is made of straw." Add fly ash, recycled lumber and steel, and blue jeans to the recipe, and you too can live like a king.

The new series will air for 13 episodes, which should give viewers some ideas on building a low-impact home. Check local listings!

And I kid about This Old House. They, too, have poured eco-friendly materials and technologies into some of their projects and have helped homeowners from all walks of life. But you still won't find me shedding a tear if they struggle to find the right tile for a master bath that's bigger than my apartment.

If vendors are trying to spread the word about their eco-friendly products, it's not reaching the ears of IT buyers. Which is just as well since only a minority of businesses has a formal set of criteria to govern their green purchasing decisions.

These topics are the focus of a Business Week article, It's Not Easy Buying Green, which dissects some of Forrester's recent findings.

Of 124 executives surveyed by Forrester, 85% said environmental concerns are "important." But only about one-fourth of companies have a formal procedure for considering green criteria when it comes to making purchases. "It's a distinct minority of buyers that are really putting the vendors through their paces in terms of the greenness of the products they are buying," says Christopher Mines, the Forrester analyst who wrote the report.

That's sure to change as vendors start beating the energy efficiency drum. For instance there's already 80 PLUS program which calls for boosting to 80 percent the power that's carried over during the AC/DC conversion process by power supplies (currently hovering around 60 percent).

Yahoo joined the Earth Day festivities this year with a microsite, now the portal is expanding on its green commitment with a whole new channel. It all starts with the Be a Better Planet page, which encourages users to help their city win a fleet of hybrid taxis. Nice!

But will Yahoo's message get drowned out as everyone (and their brother) launches a green site? Mediaweek says this...

Yahoo said that eventually, the new site will feature green-specific news, as well as regularly updated content from several environmental organizations. The portal has also lined up licensed content from the eco-conscious site Lime.com, as well as blogs from environmental authorities. However, despite Yahoo’s size and portal-clout, the new channel faces a rapidly crowding marketplace. Besides Lime, Washingtonpost. Newsweek Interactive recently launched the similar Sprig.com, which Hearst has also rolled out The Daily Green.

One must wonder, just how energy efficient are the new servers being used to serve up all these "green" sites...

National Geographic invites you to "Harness the Power of Wind" with its Wind Power Simulator. Consider yourself RSVP-ed...

The nifty Flash widget offers a look at the guts of a turbine, an explanation of how it converts wind power into electricity, and links to other wind power resources. But the fun part comes after hitting the "Try It Out" link. Here you can manipulate the blade radius, wind speed, tower height and altitude to see how many kilowatts are produced and how many homes your setup would power.

If after a few minutes you're left wondering why there appears to be a desired altitude for wind power, hit the "Generating Power" button and you'll see how all that air at higher elevations isn't necessarily a good thing.

And you thought they only published dead tree magazines with pretty pictures.

IBM went all-out green today at a press and analyst event in NYC to kick off Project Big Green. This included signage with a green logo and marketing materials featuring the IBM IT guy with a CFL bulb hovering over his head. Also, perhaps as a sign of their reduced carbon footprint ways, the event was held in the cozy, 140-seat Helen Mills Theater rather than in the comparatively lavish venues of the past like the St. Regis and Mandarin Oriental.

While my article touched mainly on the technological highlights, there were other interesting aspects to be gleaned from this marketing exercise. A lot of it, though, is familiar to anyone that explored the eco-friendly areas of IBM's website.

For starters, the company is planning to spend $1 billion a year on its energy efficiency initiatives across the corporation -- a big dollar figure to be sure, but then IBM is a HUGE multinational that generates billions in profit. Aside from that, there were some nice innovations like Donna Dillenger's stroll through a virtual data center in Second Life.

In a preview of how IBM plans to use virtual worlds to model energy efficient data centers, Dillenger, a researcher and chief IT optimization architect for IBM, guided her avatar through this 3D representation to interactively explore the how much power all that equipment consumes. A cute touch, but there were other concrete ways to drive down power utilization like the Heat eXchanger, which cools racks in a more direct manner than having to keep the entire room chilled, and the Stored Cooling product that cools a data center by employing cheaper off-peak power.

You can catch more with Clint Boulton's coverage at InternetNews. The Big Green area of IBM's site can be found here.

[Image courtesy of IBM.com]

Still fanning reams of paper and waiting for the laser printer to warm up? How very 20th century.

Linux.com has a handy tutorial for setting up a Linux box (what else)
to churn out PDFs and store them instead of printing out files that
may never see the light of day again. Now you can keep a PDF repository of your docs, online store receipts and whatever other computer generated paperwork that would otherwise act as filing cabinet stuffing.

The typical x86 server only uses 10 percent of its potential and IT departments just keep buying more.

That's the word from InfoWorld's Ted Samson based on a report from Gartner's Rakesh Kumar. Though RSC/Unix fares a bit better at 20 percent, it's still a far cry from the 70 - 80 percent attained by mainframes.

An explanation is in order . . .

So why do organizations continue to simply purchase more x86s whenever there's a perceived need for more processing power? Because the machines are inexpensive, and organizations, much like people, seem to be creatures of habits -- many of which are bad. ("This is a result of procurement processes, project budgets and the behavior of the architectural and infrastructure teams," Kumar writes.)

Chief Sustainability Officer, anyone?

[via EcoIron]

IT Jungle is running an article on a Web host's datacenter, specifically, its solar setup. Affordable Internet Services Online (AISO.net) lays claim to being a 100 percent solar energy host.

The article describes how virtualization played a role in expanding their hosting capacity while staying within the power envelope provided by its solar setup:

Sirius' solution to this situation was to replace the 120 servers with four energy-efficient xSeries Model 346 servers running Intel Xeon processors. In addition to choosing more energy efficient servers, Sirius implemented virtualization technology from VMware to carve multiple virtual machines (VMs) out of the Model 346s to run the various workloads. On the back end, Sirius installed a NetApp storage area network (SAN) with 6 TB of storage, further virtualizing storage and driving up efficiency.

The solar system cost AISO.net $100,000 (here are the panels for you to gawk at) and the company routinely sells back to the grid. In fact, it hasn't fired up its backup generator once, aside from testing it, presumably.

Unlike the insanely and inexplicably popular cat macros (geeks prefer LOLTrek), the future of LOLDatacenter looks bleak, as our little stab at it shows.

[via EcoGeek]

What's got Boing Boing hearing a choir of angels? A solar power plant in Spain, that's what.

The forty-story tower on the outskirts of Seville uses an array of mirrors (each larger than a car) on the ground to focus the sun's energy onto a solar "receiver" that turns water into steam, which in turn, is used to spin turbines.

BBC News has the full story, including the author's ascent into the "dazzling" spectacle.

Apple has been taking a beating for not being as eco-friendly as its peers in the technology space. No more, says Steve Jobs.

In an open letter to investors, Jobs outlines the steps Apple is taking to green up its act. He notes that the house that Mac built (and iPod is making the mortgage payments on) has been pretty eco-friendly all along, though the company could have done a better job of trumpeting its work in that area.

Luckily, the company is all too happy to talk about it now:

During the 2006 calendar year, Apple recycled 13 million pounds of e-waste, equal to 9.5 percent of the weight of all products Apple sold seven years earlier. Jobs said he expects that percentage to grow to 13 percent in 2007, and to 20 percent in 2008. By 2010, Apple's forecast calls for the recycling or 19 million pounds of e-waste per year, or nearly 30 percent of the product weight the firm sold seven years earlier.

There's also a little admission that is sure to bring a smile to Mac enthusiasts. It turns out that rumors of LED backlit Macs and MacBooks later this year are true.

No more earth-killing cold cathode glow for you!

Hitachi Global Storage is shrinking enterprise-class hard drives (the reliable, super-speedy 10K-15K RPM kind) for greater densities storage densities and power savings. Hitachi is planning to pump out the Ultrastar C10K147, a 2.5" SAS drive that spins at 10,000 RPM and can store 147 GB, sometime this quarter.

At 2.5 inches, Ultrastar C10K147 stores up to 147 gigabytes and stores data via a 3Gb/s SAS (define) interface for servers that need high performance but consume less power than traditional 15K HDDs.

Doug Pickford, director of market and product strategy for Hitachi, said businesses typically fit two 3.5-inch drives with a 1U (1U=1.75 inches) rack server. As customers move to 2.5-inch disk drives, such as the C10K147, there will be configurations of 6 HDDs, he said.

The drive consumes 9W maximum, whereas the 3.5" Ultrastar 15K147 scarfs down that much power that at idle (not the most seamless of comparisons, but still). And Ultrastar also has geeky starship name appeal! Death Star and Battlestar are already taken anyway.