Intel to Make Energy-Saving Computer Chip : Technology: The company says all its future microprocessors will put PCs into a ‘sleep’ mode when idle, reducing electrical use.
Claiming a significant step in efforts to conserve energy, the nation’s largest producer of computer chips announced Wednesday that all of its future microprocessors will put personal computers into a “sleep” mode when they are idle.
Santa Clara-based Intel Corp. said the new chips will bring about a 70% reduction in electrical consumption by a typical home computer and could amount to consumer savings of $1 billion a year by the end of the decade.
The announcement was made jointly by Intel and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which has launched a cooperative government-industry effort to make drastic cuts in energy consumption--and, therefore, air pollution--by the 30 million personal computers now in use.
Estimates are that personal computers are idle nearly 80% of the time they are turned on, and that 30% to 40% of them are left running at night and on weekends.
Introduction of chips to put computers to “sleep” automatically, coupled with other computer energy savings steps, are expected to save 25 billion kilowatt hours of electricity a year by the year 2000, Assistant EPA Administrator William G. Rosenberg said.
The savings in turn would cut energy production, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by an amount equal to the output of 5 million automobiles a year, according to the EPA.
About 5% of all commercial electricity now produced goes for computer operations. That level is expected to double by the turn of the century unless energy-saving measures are put into effect.
The first computers with the ability to “sleep” are expected on the market next summer. Within a few years, officials said, they expect virtually all new personal computers and portable computers to have this and other energy-saving features.
Unlike conventional computer chips, however, the new microprocessors will not be compatible with existing computers, which means owners cannot upgrade simply by buying a new chip.
As designed, a personal computer would engage its “sleep” function if the keyboard is left idle for a period of time usually predetermined by the user. The computer could be awakened instantly by a simple keystroke.
Desktop computers use several hundred watts of electricity and the objective is to reduce consumption to 30 watts or less when they are not in use.
Notebook computers in the past have used about 150 watts. Models becoming available require only about 10 watts during operation and will be able to power down to thousandths of a watt in the “sleep” mode.
Intel officials said the new feature will not increase the price of new computers.
The average personal computer remains in use four to six years, House said, and owners will not find it financially profitable to buy a new machine solely on the basis of electricity savings.
EPA’s own conversion to “green” computers, Rosenberg said, will save the government about $400,000 per year. But far more can be saved if the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy and the General Services Administration, the federal government’s landlord and housekeeper, follow suit.
An official of the GSA said that the agency plans meetings with computer manufacturers next month to begin discussions on the purchase of computers that meet standards of the EPA’s Energy Star Computers Program.
A dozen of the nation’s foremost manufacturers of desktop and notebook computers joined the EPA effort earlier this year to promote more energy-efficient computers.
Intel’s participation and its commitment to incorporate the energy-saving feature amounted to a “landmark step” in “voluntary corporate environmentalism,” Rosenberg said,
Intel manufactures about 75% of the nation’s computer chips. EPA officials said that they expect other chip manufacturers to begin making similar microprocessors within a few years.
The EPA effort to stimulate production of more energy-efficient computers comes in the wake of other programs in which it has cooperated with industry to encourage efficiency.
The Green Lights program, in which the federal environmental agency has encouraged business, industry, state and local governments to install more efficient lighting, has been the most conspicuously successful.
Also underway is an effort to design a drastically new home refrigerator. The objective of the Golden Carrot program is not only an appliance that will reduce energy consumption by half, but operate without the use of chlorofluorocarbons, which are blamed for the destruction of stratospheric ozone.
