Notes on Sustainability

S: Hi Warwick, Welcome to Notes on Sustainability.

W: Hi Steve, thanks for the chance to discuss sustainability with you.

S: I thought it would be good to paint a picture of the energy usage of both corporate computing and personal computing worldwide.  For instance, will variable clock speed computing have a  big impact in corporate Data Centers. Using 1000 Watts per square meter in power alone with another 800 Watts for cooling and ventilation for the computer room (Data Centre) space, there must be huge scope for energy reduction…

W:  Actually there seem to be a heap of good things happening, which generally work together, which is good, but you have to watch out for the caveats.. taking your variable clock speed example, in theory if the machine is not fully CPU utilised you can afford to reduce the clock speed to a point where it is fully utilised, with the reduced clock speed you can then afford to reduce the voltage and thus reduce the power consumed and of course heat generated (both the CPU and the power supply). Of course if the CPU was fully utilised then the plan doesnt work too well, we dont have scope to slow it down.

Another view might be “why dont we more fully utilise our CPUs?”.. and this approach can be met with things like virtualisation (many virtual hosts on the same machine), scavenging idle machines for use in a grid. There are lots of other things happening in this space though, like DC powered servers, HP’s dynamic smart cooling, scavenging non data centre based machines (eg user’s workstations) for use in a grid, even CISCO is helping out with network virutalisation via their new Nexus and ”data centre ethernet” protocol.

S: How would this translate in personal computing energy usage?  How many PC’s are there worldwide, I have no idea?

W: For an individual not many of the DC greening things translate (perhaps only the variable clock speed when that migrates from servers into workstations), but on a global scale giving away your spare cycles will help the world by allowing someone else to not consume so much power (eg participate in a grid like folding@home or something similar). There are a few trends happening which inadvertently reduce power (ie the user hadnt done anything deliberately to reduce power), such as the tendency for home users to use laptops at home instead of desktops (Laptops quite often are less energy hungry than their desktop equivalents because they have to be able to run off a battery, so use CMOS components, etc). Also swapping the CRT screens to LCDs for desktops. And power management on desktops with cooperative peripherals (eg monitor swaps to standby, drives spin down, printer goes to standby, etc etc). Another move is toward solid state disks, or All these are doing their bit.

S: I noticed that someone in India is looking to create a system which can use the TV as a monitor with a really low cost…This must be changing the way computer makers are thinking about PC’s and thus the energy profile.  Do you see a convergence in computing devices, phones, TV’s etc? Will this impact how we use software and thus how much energy we use.

W: Yeah there was a ”$100 PC” product in US (which failed..I guess no one wanted such a low end machine), but the idea seemed to have found root again in India. Recently there has been a plethora of low end laptops coming out (often quite small, running off solid state disks, possibly running linux).

But I think the convergence trends are still with a phone/PDA/PC device. Perhaps eventually these will use a google-type application service instead of the not quite compatible mobile office stuff and store files on line, and with the latest Xbox/playstation/etc (the only other reason you might have a PC is for games) and we might see the end of a home PC.

S: I think it is only fair that everyone gets access to information and computing power.  Do you think it is a case of using the same amount of energy and resources to do more or is there likely to be a breakthrough in the way IT is delivered?

W: I am sure that we will see more “applications as a service” and “cloud storage” meaning almost any device can meet the normal (non games) needs, of course someone will say “are you kidding, you want me to use a phone keyboard to draw a visio diagram?” but phones already have USB ports, I can easily imagine that your phone will connect your LCD monitor/keyboard/mouse via wireless broadband to your internet based “applications as a service” and “cloud storage”, then you have computing anywhere anytime.. without a computer. The telcos will start offering these “cloud services” free as a reason to consume more bandwidth on your wireless broadband.

S:  I always wanted a phone which could plug into a computer unit beside my TV. I remember the James Bond Movie ‘The Man with the golden gun’.   He assembled it from his cigarette lighter, cigarette case and tie pin and some other funky stuff.   Do you think we will be there soon?

W; Woops I think I just answered that question above…but let’sextend it….you have a new digital photo frame on your desk which acts as the monitor, connects via bluetooth to the phone, the keyboard is on those roll up rubber things connected to the photoframe via USB. The Phone itself is this freed to act as a mouse (it is GPS enabled to detectas you move it around…ok, I realise GPS isnt that good..yet, perhaps it uses the camera on a paper sheet with a gid pointer on it…like the old sun mouses). Anyway you can see if we had the will, we already have the technology..

Things we should do: bluetooth enabled TVs so the phone can be a TiVo (record what you want to watch and play it later).., also bluetooth enabled fax/doorbell video/burglar alarm/bathroom scales/fridge/microwave/coffeemaker/toaster/etc.

S:  Warwick thanks for taking time to chare your thoughts on this. I suppose this leads onto discussion of home energy usage….