Network Proxy - Sleep Talking PCs!

posted by Kapil Sood on September 22, 2009

Network Proxy, or ability of a PC to Sleep Talk, is an “energy smarter” way for a PC to maintain Internet network presence at a very low energy footprint.

Imagine these scenarios: (a) At a coffee shop, you are wanting to share pictures on your home PC with a friend, (b) Online movie distribution service downloads movies, on-demand, to your Home PC, or (c) Enterprise or personal online PC manageability Service Provider updating your PC with latest security patches responding to a PC malware outbreak.

In all these cases, and more, current technology requires the PC to be operating in their “full energy” consumption mode, 24 X 7. A PC, today, continues to consume its maximum power (say, 150W) even when it is doing nothing! That’s just one PC - now, imagine millions of PCs and other Internet connected devices that are consuming close to their maximum energy when doing nothing!!! It quickly assumes a rather serious energy crisis in scale when scaled across a country, or worse, the world. Personally, this feels very wasteful, and on a global scale, this has caught the attention of various regulatory bodies (Climate Savers Computing and Energy Star). Could we get a little smarter in enforcing “workload proportional” PC energy consumption?

Yes, we can. Our Network Proxy technology, now being standardized at Ecma TC32-TG21, allows PCs to maintain Internet connectivity using an ultra low power Proxy (say, 0.5W). The Network Proxy drastically reduces PC energy footprint (say, less than 1/100th of its max energy usage), while making PC “Always Available” to the network and server applications, and waking PC, when more processing is needed. The PC intelligently wakes up, services the request, and goes back to Sleep automatically. And, it does so reliably and predictably, maintaining the same high-quality user experience.

I am delighted to share insights into this technology at the Intel IDF ‘09 Session RESS005 on “Reliable Low-Power Network Proxy for ENERGY STAR*”. We are also excited to share with you our ongoing research proxy prototypes for wireless and remote access at our Demo Booth #484, located at the center of the IDF Technology Showcase, at the Intel Labs pavilion.

Please join us in fueling an energy conscious PC growth - the next Billion Internet devices should not require spending billions firing new power plants.

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tagged: Energy Star, IDF09, network proxy