Save energy: Beep when your battery is full
Environment, Laptops, Laptop Power submitted by pkchen
06/11/07
I know a lot of people who when charging their laptops, leave the laptop plugged in even after the battery is fully recharged. This definitely wastes a lot of power!
Maybe Dell could build in an alert system (a kind beep every 30 minutes maybe?) to remind the user that their battery is full and they can unplug their notebook from the wall socket.
I know that Nokia is going to be building in this same functionality into some of their cell phones ... check the press release: http://www.nokia.com/A4136001?newsid=1125979"Nokia has launched the first mobile phones to include alerts encouraging people to unplug the charger once the battery is full, a move that could save enough electricity to power 85,000 homes a year."
Think of all the power we could save with just a simple beep! :)
810
Low Power Usage Machines
Environment, Desktops and Laptops submitted by bluefoxicy
06/12/07
This proposal suggests creating specifically low-energy systems, with mid-level performance. We suggest a market for this proposal; a handful of existing technologies useful to these ends; and theoretical initiatives to continue on with this initiative.
This proposal suggests low-energy, mid-level performance systems. These systems would serve for generic tasks taken by a number of individual groups; in a nutshell, the system would function as a generic machine running Linux, although further initiatives would allow running Windows. These machines would be geared more towards tasks such as Web browsing, E-mail, audio and video encoding, video conferencing, and graphics editing; but would find deficiency in running high-intensity real time scientific applications or leading-edge 3D games. Such machines would utilize less electricity and thus cost less to run; also laptops and computers running on UPS would last longer on battery.
Existing technologies include alternate processor architectures such as Intel's Xscale ARM processor as I suggested earlier[1]; Mary Lou Jepsen's new LCD design[4] as I suggested earlier[2]; a low-power wireless chipset; and flash-based disks.
The Intel Xscale ARM processor runs at 600MHz and only in 32-bit mode, dual processor SMP could allow 1200MHz total. The high efficiency of the ARM architecture allows high performance at these low clock speeds; more importantly to this proposal, the Intel Xscale@600MMhz consumes 0.5 watts of power[3]. An Intel Core2duo X6800@2.93GHz consumes 75 watts of power[3], while a Core2duo U7600@1.20GHz consumes 10 watts. A dual processor Xscale system would utilize 1 watt of power for 1.20GHz to run the processors; this translates into lower heat production and thus reduced cooling requirements as well, further reducing power usage and also possibly allowing for fanless, quieter systems.
Mary Lou Jepsen designed a new display technology[4] for the One Laptop Per Child project. This technology uses a bright white LED and refraction to project colors to individual pixels; power usage reductions come from removing the high-power fluorescent back light. The display has color artifact issues, currently solved by applying a slight amount of blurring; sharpness falls below 200dpi. I am unsure of the potential to improve this technology for sharper displays; however it does have a wider color gamut than a normal LCD, and a very low manufacture cost.
The One Laptop Per Child project also uses a low-power wireless networking chipset. I believe this chipset uses an embedded, low-clockrate, self-clocked ARM processor with built-in RAM used to store firmware (loaded by the driver). The chipset uses, overall, a few tens of milliwatts of electricity at most; the power footprint of this wireless chipset is almost nothing. The particular chipset is an 802.11b chipset; however, similar designs for 802.11a/g/n chipsets should be possible. Having such a low power usage chipset for wireless would obviously contribute to the lower power footprint of the system.
Flash based "hard disks" (main storage) also supply a method of reducing system power usage; unfortunately, the technology carries a high price tag. Newegg sells 16GB USB flash drives for around $130, so I estimate retail price of 96GB flash storage drives would fall at $780 currently. Still, the price point moves rapidly with this technology, so in a few years this will become quite viable; I remember around 2003 things like 128MB drives cost $90, and 2GB drives cost $200 in 2005. If we look at the 2005 price and assume at least an 8-fold increase in capacity for the same price, then 128GB flash drives should fall around $100-$150 by 2009; realistically, the fabrication processes for smaller semiconductors become easier and the capacity per price grows exponentially.
Further theoretical initiatives include a hardware x86-to-ARM translator chipset; low-power 3D graphics; and static graphics buffers that can stay on without the CPU or most of the graphics chipset.
This proposal specifically suggests a low-power-usage ARM processor; however, modern operating systems run on x86. Modern x86 processors use a RISC language internally and apply translation to x86 instruction code to produce RISC instructions; in the same way, an expansion chipset could translate x86 code to ARM. The BIOS and its shadow would always run directly on the ARM; but a setting in the BIOS would control whether all other code runs on x86 or ARM. Setting this to x86 would activate a chipset which translates x86 instructions to ARM instructions upon fetch, and caches the output in an additional cache (Possibly a reserved segment of main memory, size adjustable in BIOS for performance). In the presence of a completely ARM operating system, this translation chipset could be completely disabled and unpowered, saving power.
Many desktop applications utilize menial 3D graphics, or can be accelerated by 3D graphics. A fully OpenGL 2.0 or higher and DirectX 10 or higher supporting 3D chipset could provide support to desktop environments like Aero and Compiz and simplistic games on the level of Armagetron or Nexuiz. This chipset could run at a low clock rate and utilize a low power footprint; not much power is needed to run simple 3D desktops. The chipset could alternately scale to high clock rates as needed, possibly supporting more intensive 3D applications.
The AMD Geode GX and Geode LX contain an integrated graphics chipset. This graphics chipset maintains the video buffer even when power to the processor is completely removed (power to the graphics area stays). I believe it also can maintain the display with most of the graphics hardware off, as long as the frame buffer stays powered; in this case, the same static image can stay on the screen, so as long as the cursor isn't blinking and the mouse isn't moving power usage drops drastically. A graphics chipset which behaves in this way would allow for large power savings if a properly coded operating system took advantage of it.
Once again, this proposal in general suggests low-power, mid-performance machines for desktops and laptops. The above ideas give some possible methods for implementing this; further research is required, but I believe I've given some interesting direction here.
[1] http://ideastorm.com/article/show/67331/ARM_PCs
[2] http://ideastorm.com/article/show/67334/LowPower_nomercury_LCD_Monitors
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CPU_power_dissipation
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children%27s_Machine#Display
1550
Allow Notebook "Upgrades" - reuse old chassis, parts, cut down on waste
Environment, Sales Strategies submitted by pkchen
06/29/07
Any way we can get machine "upgrades" instead of having to buy a whole new computer? I notice that many of the laptop designs use the same chassis across multiple platform generations -- is there a way we can turn in our old notebook and get the guts replaced?
We'd be able to reuse not only the notebook chassis, but also the screen, keyboard, CD/DVD drive, etc. Whatever is reusable we should reuse ... and the stuff that isn't compatible w/ the upgrade ... recycle! Or reuse in someone else's notebook config. Dell could offer a discounted pricing for reusing parts ... and we wouldn't have to create as much waste as buying a completely new computer.
650
PVC Free Computers
Environment submitted by badblood
07/01/07 **IN PROGRESS**
PVC and/or BFR are toxic chemicals used in your current manufacturing processes of Dell. Nokia recently phased out these chemicals and reached number one in the Greenpeace 'electronics guide'.
Stop using PVC!
520
REUSEABLE SHIPPING CONTAINERS
Environment submitted by scotty750
06/08/07
I'm an onsite tech. I've been griping for years about the large boxes for shipping parts for warranty calls that don't have handholds. And I just thought of a way to solve my gripe, make dell green and save money.
You can purchase hardened plastic laptop shipping cases that are lockable and pretty much infinitely reusable. Why not a similar solution for warranty parts.
Currently dell is using cardboard boxes. Lifespan of a box, 2 ships, out and back. if your lucky, maybe a second warranty call but not likely. cost of a box say 40 cents. number of boxes used a year??? well if we figure 30,000 systems built per day and a failure rate of say 10% (industry average is beleived to be about 15%) thats 3000 units a day that break.
Yes theres an upfront cost of purchasing the shipping cases, but they can get used an unlimited number of times. since they don't have to be constantly remade like cardboard, its a lower carbon footprint, and can lower to total cost over time from reuse. and it adds zero waste to landfill.
summary:
zero landfill
infinite reusability
lower carbon foottprint per unit over time
lower manufacturing costs over time
easy to implement
free advertising of dells commitment to green. make em a nice white with a nice big dell logo and a nice big recycle logo on it. every customer that gets a warranty repair would see the commitment to green
1660
Environmental Laptop Based on Solar Energy/Hydrogen Fuel Cell
Environment, Laptop Power submitted by gchakra
02/17/07 **UNDER REVIEW**
What's smart for the environment is smart for Dell. Dell should build units that are degradable or can be easily recycled. Sure, its going to be a little more expensive, but it will be a smart product. It will use a lot less energy. The laptops could have a solar panel or be powered by a hydrogen fuel cell. The first microelectronic implementation of a fuel cell will give Dell a tremendous marketing boost. It will be incredibly popular with kids in college.
Gopal
4235
Recycle & refurbish old Dell PCs back to Dell for 10% discount
Environment submitted by reg
05/18/07
Recycle your old Dell back to Dell for a 10% discount on new equipment. Dell can then secure overwrite erase the hard drive, install Ubuntu + hardware drivers, then donate the hardware to unemployment, food stamp, and welfare offices Nationwide. The social services offices then can pass out the refurbished used equipment to its clients, and Dell can be given BIG tax breaks by the State and Federal Systems.
1. Recycle - Turn it in, don't landfill it.
2. Reuse - There is still life left in that old hardware
3. Reduce - Buy new electronics less often, get 5 years use out of every PC.
4. Refuse - wasteful spending, wasteful practices & wasteful companies.
5. Refute - Once wasteful practices or procedures are identified, correct the problem with Action!
12670
 track my votes
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