September 4, 2008

Power over Ethernet Stirrings

It’s been a while since Power over Ethernet (PoE) has crossed my mind, which has been haunted of late by SSDs, virtualization, power management software, netbooks and the like. Essentially, PoE delivers power (and connectivity, of course) to compatible devices over the network infrastructure.

Aside from office phones and surveillance cameras, I haven’t heard much on the PoE front, which is unfortunate considering how many power bricks the technology could potentially eliminate.

Luckily, there appears to be some progress on that front. James E. Gaskin at PC World tells us:

Moving ever forward, if slowly, the standards groups are working on 802.3at, now lamely labeled "PoE Plus." What happens when they upgrade again? PoE Plus Plus?

Imagination deficient name aside, PoE Plus products should handle at least 24 watts, and some optimists say up to 60 watts. The range of supported devices will then explode, as more power via Ethernet ports meet lower power devices fighting for the "Green" label.

The upcoming standard requires better Ethernet cables, but not much. All new Ethernet cables for 15 years or more are Cat 5, compared to earlier Cat 3. Common today are Cat 5e and Cat 6. By refusing to support the really old Cat 3 cables, new PoE standards will pump more juice through regular Ethernet cables.

PCWorld's article Green PC Needs Less Juice Than a Light Bulb talks about a new British PC that seems perfect for the new PoE standard. It needs only 55 watts in use, yet includes an Intel Core2 Duo processor running at 3.0 GHz and a 1280x1024 LCD monitor. Dell's new Studio Hybrid desktop pulls about 45 watts, but you need an external monitor for that system, just like the Mac Mini.

Stay tuned...

Posted by phernandez at 11:08 PM | Add Comment

Dell Inspiron Mini 9 Goes on Sale

Dell's netbook finally went on sale today and Ubuntu fans looking for some very portable Linux computing will want to consider the base model.

Starting at $349, Dell is offering the Inspiron Mini 9 with Mini OS (Ubuntu 8.04 in netbook guise). Though the specs are modest, even by netbook standards, Ubuntu's resource-light footprint should lend itself nicely to the task at hand. This model ships with a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, half-gig of RAM, and 4GB SSD.

For those that can't live without Windows, or were mourning XP's twilight, there's the top-of the line model that starts at $449. That much coin get you the following:

8.9-inch, 1024x600 LED backlit display
Intel Atom N270 Processor
1GB DDR2 16 GB
SSD
Windows XP Home
802.11g Wi-Fi
Integrated Intel 950 Graphics

Ports:

Three USB 2.0 ports
Ethernet 10/100 LAN
15-pin VGA video connector
1-line out, 1 Mic-in
3-in-1 Media Card Reader
AC adapter

For a little more, you can splurge on:

1.3 MP Webcam $10 (.3 MP Standard)
Bluetooth $20
White cover $25 (black standard)

You'll have a bit of a wait ahead of you, however. The earliest shipping date is 9/18/2008 as of this post. And you'll want to wait at least one more day before pulling the trigger. That is, if you're in the market for a non-ultraportable laptop.

Tomorrow, Dell will be running a promotion that will score you a Mini for just $99 if you buy a Studio 15, XPS M1530 or XPS M1330. The deal ends Tuesday, September 9, 6 a.m. Central.

Posted by phernandez at 11:33 AM | Add Comment

September 3, 2008

HP and Walmart Redefine Laptop Packaging

I noted it earlier in today's roundup, but this one deserves a closer look.

During the Home Entertainment Design Challenge, HP won Walmart over with the Pavilion dv6929 Entertainment Notebook. As a piece of technology, the $800 Walmart-exclusive will likely be a decent performer but it won't floor any hard-core gadget geeks. However, HP's approach to packaging will earn it raves, and deservedly so.

You see, gone is the box and assortment of packing materials that get relegated to the attic or garage. Instead, buyers will walk out of Walmart (or Sam's Club) with the laptop, its documentation, disks and accessories, safely tucked away in a stylish messenger bag made of 100 percent recycled fabrics.

This means less overall weight and no box to carry home. According to HP, this results in a 97 percent reduction in packaging for the customer or 65 percent if you factor in the master carton that ships to Walmart.

Either way, very healthy reductions. And overall, this translates into energy and transport costs savings, since HP can ship the laptops to Walmart (3 per box, according to that picture) using fewer materials.

It also should be noted that the dv6929 did earn an Energy Star rating and Silver registration in the Electronic Products Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) so the story doesn't end at the bag.

A win-win!

Posted by phernandez at 6:12 PM | Add Comment

Green Matters: McCain, Obama Energy Plans

Where McCain and Obama stand on cleantech, oil and other factors shaping the energy debate ahead of the elections.

Drilling down on McCain, Obama energy plans - Cnet

After examining voting records and public statements, research firm New Energy Finance concluded that there are significant differences between the energy stances of Democratic candidate Obama and Republican candidate McCain.

A McCain White House would favor free-market economics and rein in the role of federal government policy on energy. Obama, meanwhile, would seek a more active role for government in promoting the clean energy industry.

Closing the Green Storage Gap - Enterprise Storage Forum

In short, the 'green' message preached by vendors and the industry may be lost on customers, who are far more concerned about the other kind of green — their bottom lines. But the two sides have far more in common than is getting across, and therein lies the opportunity: what is good for the environment is also good for the bottom line.

The green gap consequence can be viewed as one of perception. IT organizations are not, in general, placing a high priority on 'green' even as they address other issues that have ecological and economic implications. The IT industry's messaging is not effectively communicating the availability of green solutions to help IT organizations address their issues. By addressing IT issues today that include power, cooling and floor space, along with asset disposal and recycling, the byproducts are economically and ecologically positive. Likewise, the shift in thinking from power avoidance to more efficient use of energy moving forward helps from both an economic and ecological standpoint.

10 tips for implementing green IT - TechRepublic

Modern operating systems running on Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI)-enabled systems incorporate power-saving features that allow you to configure monitors and hard disks to power down after a specified period of inactivity. Systems can be set to hibernate when not in use, thus powering down the CPU and RAM as well.

HP laptop-in-a-bag wins Walmart 'green' challenge - Electronista

HP says it has found a way to reduce notebook packaging materials by 97 percent, and cut transportation costs by 31 percent. The computer giant has won Walmart's "green" Home Entertainment Design Challenge, by packaging a Pavillion dv6929 in a messenger bag capable of doubling as a shipping container.

Panasonic $3,500 AE3000 Projector: Green and Smart with Crazy Contrast - Gizmodo

The $3,500 system handles motion blur withsomething like the 120Hz seen in LCD flat panels: 120 frames per sec for 60Hz content; 96 frames per second for 24P content. It's smart on power consumption, reducing the drain on the lamp according to the scene's requirements.

Posted by phernandez at 5:43 PM | Add Comment

Adaptec Debuts RAID Controller Power Management

Saving energy is on everyone's mind lately, and Adaptec today tackles power management for drives on a RAID controller with technology that promises to reduce the power storage systems consume by "up to 70 percent without sacrificing performance."

Really?

You see, the company has baked Intelligent Power Management into its Series 5 and Series 2 Unified Serial RAID controllers. The functionality is designed to help datacenters conserve some power, especially in cases where their apps aren't hitting the drives 24/7.

Accessed through Adaptec Storage Manager software, Intelligent Power Management supports both SATA and SAS drives and is ideal for applications with large blocks of idle time, such as disk-to-disk backup, e-mail archiving and file and print servers. It allows drives to be operated in three power states: 1) Normal operation: full power, full RPM (revolutions per minute); 2) Standby: low-power mode that spins disks at lower RPM during idle periods; and 3) Power-off: disks not spinning. In addition, blackout periods can be set in which power management features are disabled, such as during peak IT activity periods.

The scheduling angle is interesting, but another idea they're pushing is reduced wear and tear. Either way, it's going to take a little management on the part of storage administrators to achieve those savings. So far, the technology is compatible with 122 drives, including the Seagate Barracuda ES SATA, Hitachi Ultrastar SAS drives and an array of Western Digital SATA models.

View the press release here.

Posted by phernandez at 1:10 PM | Add Comment

September 2, 2008

Green IT at the US Open: Behind the Scenes

Unseen by US Open attendees, and millions more television viewers and online visitors, a small army of USTA and IBM staffers toil under the Arthur Ashe and Louis Armstrong stadiums. And this year, they are tasked with doing just about everything in an environmentally friendly way as part of an all-encompassing green initiative.

During my visit, Michelle Wilson, chief marketing officer, USTA listed the many ways this year's tournament is driving the green theme home. In addition to hiring environmental consultants, the USTA is investing in energy credits to offset the US Open's impact; expanding its on-site bottle recycling efforts; encouraging the use of mass transit with Metrocard giveaways (60 percent of attendees already take the subway); adding hybrids to its fleet of player transport; and has filmed PSAs that play on several of the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center's video boards and air on USA and CBS.

Technologically, the most obvious examples are the scoring and statistics operations and the heavily-virtualized USOpen.org web infrastructure. InternetNews.com's Christopher Saunders paid a behind the scenes visit to the operation's guts. Besides some pics (like the one above), he lends insight into the role of how energy-efficiency and cost-savings are shaping how sporting event employ technology.

At the heart of all this are the half-dozen IBM p6 550 servers, spread across three U.S. datacenters.

The machines use virtualized Linux partitions for Web serving using IBM HTTP Server, with AIX partitions for WebSphere Application Server -- handling some of the site's interactive features like commenting, feedback and player search) -- and WebSphere Business Integration Message Broker for real-time scores and match status updates.

The savings from all this is immediate and sizable: Energy consumption costs have dropped by 23 percent, while costs per visitor are down 38 percent -- even as the site experiences record-breaking demand.

Big Green indeed.

Posted by phernandez at 12:41 PM | Add Comment

September 1, 2008

Asus Bamboo-ified EcoBook Enters Production

Bamboo is the new go-to material for green gadgetry, it seems. And as implementations go, there have been some hits and misses.

Now Asus has finally started production on the EcoBook, the laptop that first made tech junkies sit up and take notice of the pleasant aftermath of Bamboo's run-in with technology.

EcoBools will ship with 1,280 x 768, 11.1" or 12.1" screens and a choice of Intel Core 2 processors, hybrid drives (spindles + flash), various Vista flavors (though Vista only) and even WiMAX (check out the EcoBook product matrix here). One of the most interesting features to emerge is Asus' real-time power management, called Super Hybrid Engine.

...Super Hybrid Engine can extend battery life between 35% and 70% as compared to notebooks with the same specifications but without the technology, and yet enable users to boost their systems' performance by up to 23%. It achieves this by intelligently monitoring the power requirements of the notebook's components and automatically adjusting the power levels in real-time to match the current consumption needs, thus optimizing both system performance and power efficiency.

No word on pricing yet, but if Dell's nature-loving "sleeve" for the Studio Hybrid is any indication, expect to pay a premium.

[via Engadget]

Posted by phernandez at 11:12 AM | Add Comment

August 28, 2008

Chevy Volt Spied

Well, that didn't last long.

The Chevy Volt in production guise has been caught mugging for Transformers 2's cameras. An "above the beltline" shot and a video have emerged, revealing a sharp, un-Prius-like shape that matches up with the teaser pics of not too long ago.

Separately, someone has captured what appears to be the Volt's center stack. Interesting choice of materials...

Posted by phernandez at 11:42 PM | Add Comment

August 27, 2008

Canon's Good Digicam Karma

What happens when your camera breaks? Chances are that you toss onto your pile of dead gadgets (or worse, a landfill), head over to Amazon and start looking for a new one. But if you're an owner of a Canon Powershot digital camera, you may want to check out the company's loyalty program.

As The New York Times' David Pogue discovered, the company will take back broken, out-of-warranty cameras and offer a selection of refurbs at a substantial discount.

If you have a broken S-series, G-series, or Digital Elph camera, you can choose a refurbished PowerShot SD850 IS for approximately $150, a refurbished PowerShot G9 for $250, or a refurbished Rebel XT with a 18-55mm kit lens for approximately $275. For the A-series cameras and camcorders, there are different upgrade options as well.

Now that's an electronics recycling program I like!

Posted by phernandez at 6:46 PM | Add Comment

Green IT at the US Open: USOpen.org

Some interesting tidbits emerged during a media day hosted by IBM. The USOpen.org website. Every year since its inception traffic has grown, hitting an all time high in 2007 of over 192 million pageviews generated by 7.3 million visitors.

But the server footprint keeps getting smaller thanks to virtualization. Since 2006, they've reduced the number of servers that keep the site up and running from 60 to just six P6 550 servers spread across three time zones. Additionally, they use historical usage stats to reduce consumption by dialing back the clock speed during anticipated lulls in activity.

And as for the software powering the site:

They are configured with Linux LPARs for Web serving using IBM HTTP Server (US Open.org) and AIX LPARs for WebSphere Application Server (Commenting, Feedback and Player Search), WebSphere Business Integration Message Broker, Cache logging and content distribution servers.

Visit IBM's mini site for more on how they've helped "green" the US Open.

Update: Here are some of the power savings estimates, according to IBM:

Consolidating from nine servers to six servers (since 2006 consolidation has gone from 60 servers to 6 servers) Since 2006, reduction of energy consumption by 23% and cooling demand reduced by 25% With the p6 implementation it is expected that energy consumption will be reduced by 40% and cooling demand reduced by 48% Since 2006, visits to events infrastructure have grown by 26% while the cost per visit has been reduced by 38% during the same period Users have increased by over 20% while the cost/user has been reduced by over 27% during the same period.

Thanks Dan!

Posted by phernandez at 2:23 AM | Add Comment