Environment Ideas
ULV - Ultra Low Voltage Notebook Computer
Environment, Laptop Power submitted by reg
06/06/07 **UNDER REVIEW**
Intel and AMD have both been developing Ultra Low Voltage CPUs, computer chips that run on 1/5 of the power of traditional computer chips. The CPU is a good start, now Dell can work with Intel and / or AMD to develop a FULLY ULV Notebook - ALL the subcomponents using significantly less power than standard notebook systems.
[Gateway's ULV CPU powered notebook.]
Another big component to change is the display, static 'ePaper' notebook screens that can maintain the image even when powered off. Electricity is only used when changing the display, and even then - power only used down to the pixel level, while non-changing pixels consume little or no power at all. Back-Lit by new ULV LEDs, that adjust their intensity based off of a ambient light sensor - using even less power when in a darker room, vs. a sunny patio. The screen size can be 12" widescreen, and still be able to provide a good movie viewing experience. No Hard Drive, No CD Drive - those power hungry components can be put into the ULV notebook docking station. Use Flash drives and USB memory sticks only.
I would imagine a SSD Flash drive equipped notebook that could run for hours off of a single 9 volt battery (rechargeable of course!)
The New ULV Dell Notebook
With an ULV notebook, you can replace the battery with a water powered fuel cell, and cover the notebook screen lid with the new 40%+ efficient solar cells, and have the FIRST 'free power' ULV notebook on the market.
Samsung has been a leader in ULV technology in Korea:
540
Ion cooling
Desktops, Environment, Servers and Storage submitted by bbr
Mar 20
Please add these to your hardware
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=111293&govDel=USNSF_51
Researchers have developed a new micro-fan only slightly larger than a dime.
The item uses less energy, cools "better" than a fan, and makes no noise.
--
Broadcasters: B-roll of the fan and video interviews with Dr. Schlitz are available from Dena Headlee.
Engineers harnessing the same physical property that drives silent household air purifiers have created a miniaturized device that is now ready for testing as a silent, ultra-thin, low-power and low maintenance cooling system for laptop computers and other electronic devices.
The compact, solid-state fan, developed with support from NSF's Small Business Innovation Research program, is the most powerful and energy efficient fan of its size. It produces three times the flow rate of a typical small mechanical fan and is one-fourth the size.
Dan Schlitz and Vishal Singhal of Thorrn Micro Technologies, Inc., of Marietta, Ga. will present their RSD5 solid-state fan at the 24th Annual Semiconductor Thermal Measurement, Modeling and Management Symposium (Semi-Therm) in San Jose, Calif., on March 17, 2008. The device is the culmination of six years of research that began while the researchers were NSF-supported graduate students at Purdue University.
"The RSD5 is one of the most significant advancements in electronics cooling since heat pipes. It could change the cooling paradigm for mobile electronics," said Singhal.
The RSD5 incorporates a series of live wires that generate a micro-scale plasma (an ion-rich gas that has free electrons that conduct electricity). The wires lie within un-charged conducting plates that are contoured into half-cylindrical shape to partially envelop the wires.
Within the intense electric field that results, ions push neutral air molecules from the wire to the plate, generating a wind. The phenomenon is called corona wind.
"The technology is a breakthrough in the design and development of semiconductors as it brings an elegant and cost effective solution to the heating problems that have plagued the industry," said Juan Figueroa, the NSF SBIR program officer who oversaw the research.
With the breakthrough of the contoured surface, the researchers were able to control the micro-scale discharge to produce maximum airflow without risk of sparks or electrical arcing. As a result, the new device yields a breeze as swift as 2.4 meters per second, as compared to airflows of 0.7 to 1.7 meters per second from larger, mechanical fans.
The contoured platform is a part of the device heat sink, a trick that enabled Schlitz and Singhal to both eliminate some of the device's bulk and increase the effectiveness of the airflow.
"The technology has the power to cool a 25-watt chip with a device smaller than 1 cubic-cm and can someday be integrated into silicon to make self-cooling chips," said Schlitz.
This device is also more dust-tolerant than predecessors. While dust attraction is ideal for living-room-scale fans that that provide both air flow and filtration, debris can be a devastating obstacle when the goal is to cool an electrical component.
A prior press release on an earlier iteration of this research is available at: http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=100354
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Offer "green" desktop systems
Environment submitted by tnitchov
05/18/07 **UNDER REVIEW**
Offer "green" desktops by doing away with all Optiplex and Dimension case designs, revamp a laptop chassis into a smaller footprint desktop ... replace 3.5" drives with laptop 2.5" drives, and scale down 300+ watt power supplies to the Optiplex 65w capacities of yester-year.
Take an existing laptop design ... remove the LCD and keyboard to reduce the cost. Now you've got something more like the Mac Mini. You'll have something much smaller so that you can place under a desktop telephone ... you'll have something smaller so you won't be able to hear it ... and you'll have something more energy efficient that will help the environment.
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An ENVIRONMENT-friendly, tiny Linux SERVER - Can't Dell do this???
Environment, Linux, Servers and Storage submitted by phubert
Apr 1
Leveraging Linux for SMB's ... AND the home???
Is Dell then BEHIND the curve???
Japan's Plat'Home launching palm-sized Linux server in U.S.
Part of the first ecology-friendly line of Linux servers ever shipped in the United States, Plat'Home's OpenBlockS server has been built and tested to provide enterprise-grade reliability in its RISC-based hardware, and has eliminated moving parts including a hard disk drive and cooling fan. It is also RoHS-certified, a European Union directive meaning that it's free of lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, and other damaging materials.
http://www.cnet.com/8301-13846_1-9906136-62.html
250
Innovation MUST be OPEN - Dell needs to support this!
Dell, Environment, Education submitted by phubert
Apr 9
As this article reveals, all TRUE innovation for the future MUST be open.
Save the planet? Open!
Education? Open!
Resolve world conflict? Open!
FIX government IT? Open!
How Open Source (Ideas) Can Win the War and Save the Auto Industry
"The great products of the future are going to be built on platforms for innovation. Products with broad appeal developed by one company behind closed doors are going to be the exception not the norm. Open products will thrive on open ideas developed transparently and without pride in individual ownership." ****
http://blog.linuxtoday.com/blog/archives/080407-105255.html
140
Use Less Packaging Materials than Any Other Company
Environment submitted by jerseyshore
06/05/07 **REVIEWED**
It may not be as exciting, but become the leader in using less packaging for every purchase made....less cardboard.....better packing.....and more
We have made huge strides in reducing the amount of packaging we send out with our products. For more details from todd_d, click here.
540
Measure Green
Dell, Environment submitted by yesmathew
09/26/07
How does Dell measure Green?
Forbes.com: Measuring Green
by Andy Greenberg,
Innovators in the green information-technology movement reap good publicity from their ever-higher standards of energy efficiency. The real goody two-shoes, however, inflict those standards on their competitors.
more ... http://www.forbes.com/technology/2007/09/25/sun-green-software-tech-sciences-...<
So Dell should do something in this direction too...
- where Dell can talk about their contributions to green
- where Dell vendor can talk about their contributions to green
- where Dell customer can talk about their contributions to green
- ... ?
170
Cool & green servers
Environment, Servers and Storage submitted by hulyom
02/21/07
There are some coolers for the processor that work with water but they are not very popular, why don't you make a system where those can be connected to the radiator systems to warm up the rooms (for cold countries like England) that need to be warmed up for the workers (or some other purposes where hot water is needed) and cool down the server rooms? This will use less power in air conditioner and also less power in heaters that are used at the same time every single day in almost every single company.
300
Save the world from global warming
Environment submitted by walkerjian
02/23/07
Manufacture as much as possible from materials sourced as much as possible from atmospheric CO2. Make these fashion items so that people want lots of 'em, and get fickle very quickly. DO NOT RECYCLE - recycling is bad! Instead just sequester the unfashionable components and encourage people to buy more new stuff. People happy, dell happy, and world saved...
250
SAVE CO2 EMISSIONS: Provide hibernate and resume time scheduling to save energy for business and home users
Environment submitted by johnny
02/21/07
How about supplying some software or bios settings that can allow hibernation of a computer at a certain time and have it automatically resume at a certain time (without requiring the user to press the power button to resume).
For example, the company I work for requires we leave our PCs running when we leave the office, so software updates can be done.
This would save a lot of energy for businesses who need computers online for a small window (e.g. 2 hours) outside office hours to allow them to provide software maintenance, but not require the PC to be running all night unnecessarily using power.
Imagine the savings of greenhouse gases if all office desktops were not running for 8 hours in the evening for example.
This would also be useful for home users where they could configure their desktop computer to hibernate in the evenings and resume in the mornings. This would allow then to access their home computer from work or whilst on the road during the day using windows remote desktop. There are probably a large number of geeks that leave their computers running 24x7 at home, who could save energy.
The only issue I can think of so far with this idea is that antivirus software may not have a large enough window to scan files in the evening and therefore may end up resuming the scan when the computer resumes in the morning. This may only be an issue for users with lots of files.
220
Power Consumption Index
Environment submitted by towap
02/21/07
I think Dell can be the first to encourage people to incorporate the power consumption of their new PC in their decision process. Having a power consumption as low as possible has several advantages: 1) your PC needs less cooling = more silent, 2) you'll pay less, and 3) better for the environment.
So my proposal would be to make an Index system to compare power consumption of several PC's.
981
recycle all laptop parts
Environment, Laptops submitted by anechoic
02/20/07
when a laptop is at the end of its lifecycle one should be able to return it to the manufacturer and have them recycle any and all parts.
A precursor to this would be to design laptops in such a way where certain parts could be used in newer machines.
Better than sending old laptops into a landfill somewhere.
more green thinking -- less greenwashing!
105
Old computer recycle program
Environment, Desktops and Laptops submitted by carr0075
02/20/07
Maybe DELL does this already, but DELL should offer consumers a computer recycling program for their old computers. If DELL wants to really work towards being "green" reducing the amount of computer related toxic material being dumped into local landfills would be a good beginning.
191
Going green by planting a tree
Dell, Environment, Desktops and Laptops submitted by carr0075
02/20/07
Fluffy and empty of true impact. I look forward to the time when vast Dell forests cover the barren plains of .... hmmm, I mean the vast carbon spewing life-sucking cities of....where are the tree's being planted again? Ok, the idea of planting trees is not totally without merit but, gee whiz, is this the best idea that Dell could conceive?
A better idea would be more energy efficient machines and more transparency on how you recycle e-waste (where do you send all of that old lead etc..Asia?). Tell your customers where they can send old machines for recycling rather than have toxic material end up in landfills. An even better idea would be to offer your customers the option of paying a small fee, similar to the tree idea, that would allow them to send their computer back to Dell for recycling. Heck Dell wouldn't even have to do much more than act as a go between for an established recycling company.
138
A computer with an internal clock that can turn it self ON at scheduled times.
Environment, New Product Ideas submitted by jmxz
12/11/07
To save power I'd like to turn my computer off or hibernate or suspend it when not in use.
However I also have some scheduled tasks I'd really like to run.
My always on computer does everything from installing security patches in the middle of the night; to checking my stocks and email every few minutes.
Could a Dell desktop have an internal clock that can turn itself on at a programmable time. If so, I could even use the computer as an alarm clock.
A feature with a number of turn on times would be nice "power yourself on at 12:00 midnight, and also 6:30 am". Normal software could handle the "if it's the middle of the night and the computer's idle shut down after the security updates are done" or "if it's 6:30, play music like an alarm clock".
Also nice would be a "if suspended, wake up every half hour" feature whereby my computer could do my email, stocks, etc checking; and alert me (play a loud sound so I hear it even when I'm away from it; and/or send my cell phone an I/M) if there's anything I should react to.
340
Biodegradable Packing material
Environment submitted by ewagnerjr2000
04/19/07 **UNDER REVIEW**
When I received my 32" lcd screen it had an extremely large amount of Styrofoam. Dell is working to be environmentally friendly, maybe they should consider a better packing material at least one that will biodegrade.
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