New computing center saves green by being green

An Orem company unveiled a huge computing facility in West Valley City on Wednesday, touting it as the greenest in the state and on par with Google's most efficient centers. - Friendly Computers

Read more below…

Voonami Inc. said soon it will be serving large and small customers from the center at the edge of Interstate 215 with a state-of-the-art facility that uses an old technology to cool it.

Providing the chill is a giant evaporative cooler, similar to swamp coolers that have been in use in dry climates since the beginning of the 20th century. The cooler, along with other engineering innovations, are expected to trim energy costs by 80 percent over a typical giant data center, said Voonami president Ben Bush.

"When you talk about an 80 percent difference in power, it's a big difference," said Bush. "We're paying 80 percent less than the competition."

Utah is host to a number of such centers that sell computing power to other companies, which often find that contracting is less costly and gives them more flexibility.

Voonami was hatched in 2006 out of ThinkAtomic, the incubator of companies started by Ralph Yarro after he and the Canopy Group had a stormy parting in 2005.

Yarro said the company's initial computing center, in Orem, was started in part to serve ThinkAtomic and its start-ups.

The new center in West Valley City "is built specially for high-end, green data center services," said Yarro, the chair and CEO of Voonami.

Eight months of the year the water used to cool the facility is chilled solely by dropping it through cooling towers outside the building.

"We get what we call free cool, where you're using the environment to cool your system," Yarro said.

Besides the giant water cooler, the cooling system design by Mechanical Service & Systems Inc. of Midvale also pushes a constant flow of cool air into the facility through the floor so it is more uniformly distributed and hot spots eliminated. In addition, plastic sheeting ensures that the cool air does not mix with the air that has been warmed as it passes over the electronic equipment, a design that also means less energy is needed for cooling.

"This way it's focused," said Bill Gast, an Mechanical Service & Systems engineer who worked on the project. "We contain the hot air" that is siphoned away to be cooled again and returned to the room.

Beyond the cooling system, Voonami also is offering a distinctive browser-based system to manage the computers that can be used from computers outside the facility and even from a smart phone. That system was developed by Sumavi, another company being launched by ThinkAtomic.

"I can grab a copy of Windows Server and drop it on this group icon that represents hundreds of servers and they'll be up within 30 seconds, hundreds of servers running that Windows OS and ready for deployment," said Bush.

Voonami has a contract to run the computers for a company that supplies security applications to Facebook, along with other companies he declined to name.

Gast said the National Security Agency, which soon will be building a giant data center at Fort Williams, has toured the Voonami facility to view the cooling system. On Wednesday, state government representatives also showed interest in the system for the state's data center.

Source: http://www.sltrib.com/Business/ci_14464986

Developer Trend Alert: Programming for Energy Efficiency - Friendly Computers

Developers have long focused on building software for better performance and more features. Each generation of programs for our laptops and mobile software are supposed to do more for us — not less. But there has been a growing amount of attention as of late on developers trying to be mindful of the energy consumption of software, and developing programs that use as much energy as needed — and not more. - Friendly Computers

Read more below…

The practice is particularly important for mobile devices. The small size, dependence on battery life and limited functionality (compared to a computer) means that mobile developers are leveraging every resource to maximize the experience, and that includes making programs that don’t drain batteries too quickly. The IEEE Spectrum recently highlighted a mobile application called PowerTutor, built by researchers at the University of Michigan, that enables the user to compare the efficiency of mobile applications as well as being able to see how much energy your phone is consuming, down to individual components like the phone’s CPU, network interface, GPS, and LCD screen.
From a consumer perspective PowerTutor is just a novelty, but from the perspective of a developer, it could be useful to help create more efficient mobile applications. The idea is for mobile developers to use it for a few days to optimize their apps, and then disable it (the app itself uses 5 percent of the CPU, or 2 to 3 percent of the phone’s power).

I think services and apps like PowerTutor will become increasingly common as developers program software for mobile devices that are becoming ever more powerful and complex and thus are consuming more energy. Kirk Cameron, an associate professor in the computer science department at Virginia Tech (I’m assuming not the teen star turned Left Behind actor) told IEEE Spectrum that the problem of mobile power has truly become mainstream.

The phone companies already know they need to reduce the energy consumption of their networks and the devices on the edges of their networks. Sprint’s CEO Dan Hesse testified before a Senate hearing this morning about Sprint’s green initiatives and he explained how Sprint’s network (and network of devices) represented 80 percent of its overall energy usage. According to The Climate Group’s Smart2020 report the amount of global mobile accounts will grow from 1.1 billion to 4.8 billion accounts between 2002 and 2020, “representing the largest source of global telecom carbon footprint emissions.” The good news according to the Climate Group is that the increased use of smart chargers and standby power modes will help to drive down the per capita energy consumption footprint of cell phones by 2020.

But baking the energy efficiency into the software development itself just makes sense economically and logistically. Other computing sectors, like for data centers and servers, are also eying how so-called “green code” can help make running computing more efficient. A couple years ago we published this interesting piece on how inefficient (or “bad”) code really matters when it comes to the energy consumption of computing. A couple friends of mine who work at Twitter have talked to me about how Twitter is looking at more efficient code to run processes and services more efficiently.

The idea of “green code” or “green software” is rather fluffy, but from a developer perspective it’s all about efficiency: software should use just as much power as needed.

Source: http://earth2tech.com/2010/02/23/developer-trend-alert-programming-for-energy-efficiency/

Houston aims to be electric car capital - Friendly Computers

Houston, nicknamed the Petro Metro for the profusion of oil and gas companies that dot its skyline, is an unlikely host for an electric-car revolution. - Friendly Computers

Read more below…

But the fourth-biggest U.S. city, which claims the title of the "Energy Capital of the World," is competing with cities like San Francisco to be the nation's electric car capital.


Nissan Leaf parked outside CNET's San Francisco headquarters.

(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET) "We are the Petro Metro but we are also a car city," said newly elected Mayor Annise Parker, speaking at an event on February 5 to promote the Nissan Leaf, an all-electric, five-passenger vehicle that can travel 100 miles on a single charge. "To have an electric vehicle that appeals to a car culture will make the real difference for market penetration."

Cities like Houston and San Francisco are forging partnerships with automakers and power companies to make the vision a reality.

In Houston, for instance, Japanese-based Nissan Motor has signed a deal where the city and power provider Reliant, a unit of NRG Energy, will build a handful of public-charging stations to allow electric car drivers to recharge their cars.

Nissan has signed agreements with other cities like San Diego, Seattle, and Orlando and states like Tennessee and Oregon to ensure that public-charging stations are built.

Such agreements are key to easing skeptical consumers' fears of running out of juice if their car batteries run low before they can reach their garage charging stations.

For beleaguered U.S. automakers like General Motors and Ford Motor, electric cars could be a way to boost shrinking market share.

"Detroit needs something to be exciting and new," said William Hederman, a senior vice president at Concept Capital's Washington Research Group.

General Motors' highly-anticipated battery-powered Chevy Volt hits showrooms in November, about the same time that Nissan begins U.S. sales of the Leaf.

Love of big cars
Texas drivers have a well-established affinity for over-sized cars, but the case for electric cars is strong.

Even if a small percentage of Texas drivers switch to electric cars, the payoff could be substantial. The Houston area alone is home to 4.5 million vehicles that travel 86 million miles a day, according to state statistics.

And Texas leads the nation in producing clean, carbon-free electricity from windmills. But the state must build billions of dollars worth of transmission lines needed to channel the wind power to urban centers.

For U.S. utilities that have seen electric demand slump 5 percent over the last two years due to a recession, the electric car is a godsend, said Kevin Book, managing director of research at ClearView Energy Partners.

"What a salvation the electric car revolution would be for generators that are well below their capacity margins and trying to figure out how to make money," Book said.

In a strange bedfellows story of sorts, U.S. utilities have moved in recent months to cement ties with automakers.

"We've worked very closely together," said Tony Earley, chief executive of a Detroit utility and chairman of the U.S. electric industry's main lobbying group who also sits on Ford's board of directors.

Such coordination has helped utilities fend off clean-car competition in the form of natural gas-powered vehicles promoted by Texas oil man T. Boone Pickens, Hederman said.

Utilities see electric cars as a perfect market for spare electricity that is generated by power plants in off-peak hours that could be sold to consumers who will recharge their electric cars during late-night and early-morning hours when power is the cheapest.

"If it works the way utilities envision, it's growth that fills in the valleys of their demand patterns, and that would be a wonderful thing," Hederman said.

Utilities must build or buy generation to meet the one day of the year when electricity demand is the highest. "The other 364 days of the year our system is under-utilized," said Earley, also chief executive of DTE Energy in Detroit. "There is a lot of capacity that is unused."

Under pressure
For utilities and auto companies watching climate change legislation advance on Capitol Hill, electric cars are a useful tool to reduce heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions to comply with looming first-ever U.S. greenhouse gas restrictions.

"We know that our utility partners face the same pressures that we do to reduce emissions," said Mark Perry, Nissan's director of product planning.

About one-quarter of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions are linked with cars. U.S. President Barack Obama wants to put 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2015 to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

And even without climate change legislation, smog-enveloped cities like Houston are already under the gun from federal regulators to reduce smog-causing pollutants like nitrogen oxide, which comes mainly from vehicles.

One big question mark for utilities is how they will be compensated for building charging stations. One study by the University of California Berkeley pegged the cost of building U.S. charging stations at $320 billion in coming decades.

State public utility commissions will have to give utilities permission to recover infrastructure costs via higher rates, but won't approve electric charging stations until they are widely used, Hederman said.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10454610-54.html?tag=mncol;title

US toys in 2010 are 'green,' high-tech... and cheap - Friendly Computers

NEW YORK — US toy makers are coming out of a long recession tunnel this year, hoping to ride the recovery wave with new lines of classic, "green" and high-tech toys, and a sales pitch centered on affordability. - Friendly Computers

Read more below…

The American International Toy Fair 2010, underway in New York until Wednesday, is sounding out market tendencies after a disastrous 2008 and an encouraging upswing in 2009 that promises further improvements this year in a multi-billion-dollar industry.

Toy manufacturers have hit the fair with exhibits ranging from classic erector sets by Lego and Playmobil to spanking new offers like a Twitter collar for pets and the perennial doll favorite Barbie, who this year is decked out as a television anchorwoman.

Santa Claus will have toys for all tastes next Christmas, but above all he will be concerned with keeping the price tag down, even at the expense of quality.

Labeled toy of the year by the Toy Industry Association (TIA), the cuddly Zhu Zhu pet hamster robots from Cepia are still top of the list for young kids -- and parents -- for under 10 dollars.

"The trend this year is affordability. You will see a lot of green products under 25 dollars, also active games for the body or the minds, and affordable high tech," TIA spokeswoman Reyne Rice told AFP.

"Parents are looking for toys or games they can play with their children, and not necessarily with too much technology," said Playmobil USA Marketing Manager Michelle Winfrey.

The toy industry is worth 75 billion dollars in annual sales worldwide, with more than one-quarter, or 21 billion, in the United States alone, according to TIA figures.

This year's environmentally friendly exhibits include toys made of wood and innovative offers like a 20-dollar caterpillar farm that, with all the supplied proper care, turns into a butterfly factory in only three weeks.

Giant toy maker Mattel is hitting the high-tech market in mid-2010 with "Puppy Tweet," a Twitter-enabled dog collar for around 30 dollars that broadcasts your pet's actions on micro-blogging site Twitter.

Another wallet-friendly smart toy starting at 10 dollars is "Hexbug," micro-robotic creatures resembling cockroaches, spiders or crabs that respond to touch, sound and even light and are capable of navigating mazes or their own nano habitat set.

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Rubik's Cube, Techno Source offers "Rubik's Touch" for easy solving of the puzzle with just a swipe of the finger, and "Rubik's Slide" -- coming out in the third quarter of this year -- with light-and-sound effects for 18 dollars.

"It is easy to understand, it has a physical aspect and it is addictive," said Techno Source assistant marketing manager Amy Bogin.

Barbie 2010 has also gone high-tech with its 50-dollar "Video Girl," sporting a small video camera that can send everything the blond doll sees onto a computer screen.

Toy giant Mattel surveyed its Barbie followers to determine what the doll's 125th profession should be. By majority consent, Barbie this year is a reporter and star news anchorwoman on television.

And steering away from her traditional pink outfits, the new Barbie comes with a choice of 12 predominantly black wardrobes.

The toy fair has some 100,000 products on show for its 32,000 visitors at the Javits convention center. The list, of course, also includes sophisticated and expensive toys.

"Beamz," is a laser beam musical instrument for 200 dollars apt for children of all ages, including dad.

A notch above is "Bioloid," a 1,200-dollar robot from South Korea's Robotis that is billed as the first educational robot kit based around "smart serially controlled servos." It can be programmed and made to move in astonishingly realistic fashion.

Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iByYKm51nZ1Yjd74pvYicG-IVlnA

New Supercomputer Uses Water-Cooled Technology to Save Energy - Friendly Computers

Nanyang Technological University (NTU) February 11 opens its much-anticipated High Performance Computing (HPC) Centre to support the university's growing international research profile and capacity, especially in the area of sustainability. - Friendly Computers

Read more below…

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

See Also:
Computers & Math
•Computer Science
•Distributed Computing
•Information Technology
•Computer Modeling
•Artificial Intelligence
•Hacking
Reference
•Blue Gene
•Supercomputer
•Computing
•Grid computing
The HPC Centre, which is based on the first IBM System x iDataplex cluster in ASEAN and powered by the Intel® Xeon® processor 5500 series, reduces electricity consumption as it can automatically adjust to specified energy usage levels and specified transaction speeds. NTU's supercomputer is ranked the 6th most energy-efficient in the world based on x86 architecture -- the universal platform found in computers today, and the 29th most energy-efficient system on the Green500 list at 274.64 Mflops (millions of floating point operations per second) per watt.

Unlike typical data centres which require a lot of energy to cool the operating environment, NTU's HPC system maximises performance with a unique water-cooled technology -- IBM's Rear Door Heat eXchanger for the iDataplex Rack. This eliminates the need for computer-room air conditioners, allowing for room-temperature operation. The result is a reduction in electrical consumption by more than 30 per cent when compared with the standard precision cooling system found in most supercomputers.

With one of the world's fastest supercomputers with a measured computing power (Rpeak) of over 29 teraflops (trillion mathematical calculations per second), NTU is now exploring more possibilities in leading-edge research and innovation. The research topics include developing future energy sources, studying global climate change, designing new materials, and understanding biological systems and the physics of complex socio-economic systems, among others. More can also be achieved in research such as in the modelling of volcanic activities, understanding the earth's tectonic movements and water treatment processes, as well as the simulation of flight dynamics.

"Prior to installing the supercomputer, pockets of computing capabilities were located in Schools on campus which compete for space and financial resources. The establishment of the supercomputer brings under one roof a centralised large-scale computing facility to the 2,800-strong research community on campus. It will also pave the way for a wider range of complex multidisciplinary research endeavours and more opportunities for research interaction within as well as outside of NTU," says NTU Provost Professor Bertil Andersson. NTU's green implementation has received much interest from local industries and has spurred the interest of organisations such as DSO, A*STAR and Singtel to set up a similar green data centre.

Sharing how the system has benefited his research, Assistant Professor Mu Yuguang from NTU's School of Biological Sciences says, "During the pilot phase we extensively tested the supercomputer's performance. We found two prominent features to be very attractive: the speed of each single central processing unit (CPU) and efficient parallelisation capacity, which means that we can study larger and longer processes required in our research and reduce the time needed to collect and analyse the data."

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100211090748.htm

Data centers go green - Friendly Computers

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK -- IBM is promoting its spanking new $362 million cloud computing center here as its greenest data center yet - and for good reason. - Friendly Computers

Read more below…

More and more corporate customers in the market for data center services want to know "what kind of green technology we are employing," said Joe Dzaluk, vice president for global infrastructure at the technology giant.

The answer from IBM: Outside air will cool the data center about half the year. Sensors monitor temperature and humidity, and adjust cooling accordingly. Rainwater is collected for reuse. Backup generators use low-sulfur fuels to reduce emissions.

The center is seeking a gold Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating. And much more.

Marketing and being good corporate citizens aren't the only reasons that the new data centers popping up across the Triangle are going green.

Data centers, which run a company's internal functions or are profit centers that sell services to customers who prefer to outsource, require a huge amount of electricity. So reducing consumption means huge savings.

"It's all about energy efficiency," said analyst David Cappuccio, chief of research for infrastructures at Gartner. "That's the mantra of data centers."

Cappuccio calls IBM's new center "as close to state-of-the-art as I have seen." IBM is one of the Triangle's largest employers, with about 10,000 workers.

A 20,000-square-foot data center - a fifth the size of what IBM's new center will ultimately encompass - can consume $5.2 million worth of electricity a year when operating at full capacity, Cappuccio said.

Big new data centers have been spreading like computer viruses in the Triangle.

"The need for IT centers continues to grow, even in a down economy," Cappuccio said.

Among the Triangle's large new data centers:

NetApp: The data storage company opened a $65 million data center and product development lab in Research Triangle Park last year. Mark Skiff, senior director of workplace resources for East Coast operations, said the data center, which is for internal use, saves $7 million in annual energy costs thanks to its green design.

EMC: The No. 1 maker of data-storage computers is building a $280 million data center in Durham County that will initially support the company's operations. "Green means green," said Bob Hawkins, vice president of North Carolina operations. "We can save money by installing a lot of green features."

SAS: The business software company is constructing a $70 million cloud computing center on its Cary campus that it expects to begin operating next year. The center, which is aiming for LEED certification, will serve customers who access SAS software remotely. "If you're not marketing [green], you are missing an opportunity," said Jerry Williams, environmental sustainability program manager.

IBM's new data center began operating in November but was officially dedicated Thursday afternoon at an orchestrated event that included Gov. Bev Perdue and attracted more than 400 onlookers.

Today the center occupies 60,000 square feet. But its modular design has been engineered so that it can quickly ramp up to 100,000 square feet featuring 1,200 racks of servers, each black metal rack 6 1/2 feet high. The center is run with a handful of employees.

IBM's new center hosts the company's global Web site, but its primary purpose is running data center operations for clients such as the U.S. Golf Association. Because IBM also designs data centers for companies that want to run their own in-house operations, the center will also serve as a showcase for prospective customers from around the world.

Perdue, noting that 1,000 people a year are expected to visit the center, jested that it was "a tourist attraction."

IBM's center will offer cloud computing services, which enable accessing networks of computers over the Internet.

By using technologies such as virtualization, which allows computer servers to be more efficient, cloud computing centers can save customers money, said Russ Klein, vice president of the technology resource group at Aberdeen Group.

Indeed, although companies talk a lot about wanting to be green, when they seek to outsource their data center operations the primary drivers are "cost, performance and functionality," Klein said. "Green is a nice-to-have."

Still, he said, given that data centers tend to be "pretty comparable," greenness is one way that companies can distinguish themselves from the competition.

Source: http://www.newsobserver.com/business/story/321080.html