New Design Tools Wake PCs Instantly from Sleep 

Coming together as part of the Climate Savers Computing Initiative’s Power Management Workgroup, technology industry leaders are releasing a new design guide that addresses general design principles for making power management faster and more reliable. Climate Savers Computing Power Management Workgroup members that collaborated to create the computer power management standards design guide include Dell, Fujitsu, HP, Intel, LSI, Lenovo and Microsoft. The Power Management Systems Design Guide addresses specific reliability challenges of sleep state standby (S3) technology and offers instructions on how to build energy-efficient, power-managed client platforms that will result in a positive user experience.

The Climate Savers Computing Initiative is a nonprofit group of eco-conscious consumers, businesses and conservation organizations dedicated to reducing the energy consumption of computers. More than 550 companies and organizations have joined the Initiative since its launch in June 2007, and thousands of individuals have pledged their support. The Initiative is led by CSC, Dell, Google, HP, Intel, Microsoft and World Wildlife Fund. Sponsors include 1E, Acer Inc., Faronics, Fujitsu Limited, Hitachi Ltd., Lenovo, NEC Corporation, Symantec and Verdiem Corporation.

“Currently, 90 percent of desktops do not use power management, even though today’s computers support this feature in their operating systems, power management software and platform components and design,” said Pat Tiernan, executive director of Climate Savers Computing, a global nonprofit committed to reducing IT-related energy consumption. “Users prefer to have instant access to their network. Our challenge is to lower an idle, unused computer’s energy consumption without sacrificing system productivity or performance.”

These leaders have identified and removed obstacles to the adoption of power management in the desktop and notebook computer marketplace. Technical barriers addressed in the Power Management Systems Design Guide include networking protocol and hardware and software latencies that adhere to the forthcoming Ecma Network Proxy Standard.

“The Power Management Workgroup provides a great example of how Climate Savers Computing allows collaboration between technology competitors to build industry-wide efforts that positively impact both technology and behavior,” said Tiernan. “By offering solutions to various technical issues, we hope the design guide will lead to an increased deployment of computer power management across the board, with improved designs leading to greater consumer adoption.”

Adopting power management can generate computing energy savings up to 60 percent without impacting productivity or performance. Implementing power management allows a desktop or laptop to quickly transition into and out of a lower-energy state, consuming as little as three to five watts of power versus more than 50 watts when left in the idle state.

“The Power Management Design Guide provides a platform-level, reliable power management solution blueprint for client OEMs, ODMs, component manufacturers and SW developers. Release of the guide is also synergistic with the upcoming release of Ecma’s Network Proxy Standard,” said Lorie Wigle, president of Climate Savers Computing. “Together, the two efforts will accelerate the industry adoption of networked power management. The guide is a strong demonstration of the IT industry collaborating on standards and specifications in order to collectively move the industry towards greater energy efficiency.”

The design guidelines are recommended by Climate Savers Computing to make power management faster by improving a computer’s sleep reliability and reducing latencies during sleep and resume cycles. Specific areas addressed in the Power Management Systems Design Guide include:

• S3 User Experience, Wake Mode and Latency

• System Recommendations for S3 Reliability

• Windows Logo Program Overview

• Network Proxy Ecma TC38-TG4 Standard (formerly TC32-TG21)

• ENERGY STAR v5.0

• General Design Principles for S3 Associated Hardware

• System Manufacturer Recommendations

• Implementing Power Management for USB Devices

• Reliability Testing and Tools for S3

Climate Savers Computing recognizes that the PC and the global information and communications technology industry account for approximately two percent of global CO2 emissions. As such, the organization considers computer energy consumption an appropriate and necessary target for energy conservation strategies.

“Power management is one, and arguably the most promising, of the available PC energy-conservation strategies,” said Tiernan. “This Power Management Systems Design Guide, created by the industry’s leaders, is an exciting step toward significantly reducing computing energy consumption, thereby reducing a company’s IT costs and reducing its carbon footprint.”

“The Power Management Design Guide helps IT administrators as well as hardware and software developers to achieve green IT by low-power PC solution. The guide provides recommendations of S3 implementation and testing for developers to pursue reliable power management on PC clients and provides system manufacturer’s recommendation for IT administrators to utilize implemented power management features constructively and effectively, which leads IT industry-wide energy efficiency and green IT,” said Yasumichi Tsukamoto, Power Management Technical Master, Lenovo.

The Power Management Systems Design Guide is available at www.climatesaverscomputing.org