Green Computing

Plug computing is really coming of age, and in my opinion - that's very cool!

What is a Plug Computer?

A plug computer is often described as a small, low-power computer that has a form factor that allows it to be plugged directly into a power outlet.

They've been around for awhile as specialty hardware. I think the first one I saw was called JackPC, and that was designed more as a computer that resembled a wall outlet than something that would get plugged into a wall outlet.

More recent plug computers look almost like power adapters, aka wall warts. The one that seems to have gathered the most attention is called the SheevaPlug. It runs on the ARM9 architecture and is marketed by Marvell and their system-on-chip called Kirkwood 6281.

Plug Computer Power Consumption

I've read that the SheevaPlug only uses 5 watts of power. If so, that would really be amazing because its reportedly quite a little powerhouse, too, in terms of processing power.

Plug Computer Uses

I'd first guess that a very useful application for a plug computer would be wireless - using the plug as a node in a wireless mesh network, or simply acting as a repeater node to extend wireless range.

After that, the sky is the limit! Prior to plug computers, enthusiasts have been modifying wireless routers with linux to act as micro-servers, even using some that have support for USB as network attached storage devices.

This brings up two important points about some plug computers:

• USB 2.0 support
• eSata support

The eSata support is really, really awesome!

Plug Computer Pricing

This is another important factor when it comes to plug computers: they are inexpensive! The SheevaPlug development kit can be purchased for only $99 USD!

Finally, REAL hybrid-energy (consumption) computer components!

Presented at this year's CES and hopefully soon to enter the marketplace, hybrid displays will be able to switch between standard LCD and e-ink. The logic being that LCD displays are better for full color imagery, and e-ink is better for e-books.

E-ink uses a lot less energy than LCD displays. As such, its the prime choice for e-book readers like the Amazon Kindle.

Check out this post by Russell Coker about a "hybrid" computer / laptop:

The Lenovo U1 Hybrid - an example of how Proprietary OSs Suck

At first I thought that hybrid referred to some sort of power system, but it refers to the operating systems which the device runs.

At first glance it seems pretty strange. I agree with Russell in that it is my personal opinion that proprietary OSs suck compared to open source operating systems like Debian GNU/Linux and FreeBSD.

Its been almost two months since the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, and I'm only now learning about a new micro server they unveiled there. Either they didn't know how cool I thought it would be, or I've been working too hard!

Here's a press release from Intel which includes lots of other news and only mentioned the micro server about halfway down the page:

Maloney disclosed a new ultra-low-voltage Intel® Xeon® 3000 series processor featuring a TDP (Thermal Design Power) of only 30 watts. To complement the broad range of dense and power-optimized platform offerings, Intel also demonstrated publicly for the first time a single-socket "micro server" reference system which will help enable micro server innovation and future specification.

I hope they put these into production and make them available for purchase very soon!

This is a great post about a low power machine:

Building a 15W Debian GNU/Linux system