Intel Open Port: The Server Room Blog : Tags : green

Monday, the EPA announced Intel was #1 a top their Green Power Partner list, designating Intel as the largest purchaser of Green Power in the US. The purchase was significant as it represented the largest single purchase in the history of the program which dates back more than ten years. Since this announcement the press, blogs and environmental pundits have commented on the significance of this purchase as a demonstration of Intel’s eco-responsibility, while emphasizing the potential positive impact it may towards driving greater demand and supply of renewable energy.

The questions many inside of Intel been asking are along the lines of, “What are the implication and relevance of the Green Power announcement to our products and technology? And then specifically to the Green IT trend? The answers to these questions are two fold. First, by purchasing renewable energy credits to over 40% of Intel’s projected US electricity requirements for our facilities and factories customers can be assured Intel is making real actions to reduce the impact on the environment as we design and produce our products.

The second answer is one of role modeling as an example with decisions based on environmental impact and sustainability. Intel brings to the table a consideration for data center operators to drive the direct cost reduction benefits with greater energy efficiency and to evaluate improvements in sustainability of operations by considering renewable energy.

This may not be as direct a call to action as the Climate Savers Computing Initiative or defined like Green Grid BKM’s, but we can all agree that more Green Power usage and availability at competitive costs is good for business and the environment. As PSO pointed out in his ISMC opening keynote, Intel must lead and be a leader. The Green Power purchase is a good example of the “Impact” we can make as a company through our responsible actions and citizenship.

So, what are you doing along the 'Green' lines?

0 Comments 0 References Permalink Tags: environment, green_computing, l_wigle, eco-technology, eco-sensitive

Eco-Technology - what does this term mean and why would Intel use it instead of "Green Computing" or something more common?

Moore's Law gives us the ability to deliver more performance and greater energy efficiency with each generation of microprocessors - and reducing the energy consumption of our products is far and away the biggest impact Intel can have on carbon footprint.

We recently completed an analysis of a high-performance computing configuration that was originally deployed in 2002 (coming in at number 17 in the Top500 Supercomputer list for that year) and is still in use today. This configuration consists of 512 servers fit out into 25 racks using 128 kW and delivers 3.68 TFlops peak on the LINPACK benchmark. Today, that cluster could be replaced with a single rack of roughly 53 blade servers drawing 21 kW and still giving us that 3.7 TFlops of performance (Energy efficiency in the data center). More on whether that level of density is appropriate for everyone later.....

Think of the incredible increase in productivity - and new innovations - that have been made possible by this phenomenal growth in compute capacity. The explosion of information that's available at our fingertips and the evolution of many aspects of our global economy to bits instead of physical materials.

And that's really the point of "Eco-Technology" which is defined as an "eco-sensitive" approach to technology that takes into consideration sustainability in both manufacture and end-use of technology.

So we're increasing both the energy efficiency of our products and we're eliminating potentially harmful materials such as lead and halogen from our manufacturing, but we're also as an industry continuing to contribute to productivity and transformation. Both are important.

As companies explore their IT Sustainability programs and we all work to define what green computing should mean, what are your thoughts on how to balance the imperative to do more work, deliver more business value with the rising costs of energy and our collective desire to slow climate change? The US Environmental Protection Agency is contemplating Energy Star for servers. If you were in charge, what criteria would you use to award the label?