Power-One was the only power-conversion equipment manufacturer selected by the conference’s Case Study Review Committee to present a technical paper to support the first-day theme: “Enterprise Servers and Data Centers: Opportunities for Energy Savings.” The first day of this prestigious event was hosted at Sun Microsystems’ (Nasdaq: SUNW) Conference Facility.
According to the conference’s Draft Summary of Hindrances to Increased Energy Efficiency in Servers and Data Centers, “Servers continue to become more pervasive and more powerful, a combination that has greatly increased energy consumption by these devices. Energy inefficiency places a financial burden both on customers – paying to maintain ideal operating conditions – and on manufacturers – paying to develop methods to push the thermal limits of component materials as the increased heat generated by server components climbs higher.”
Power-One’s presentation demonstrated how implementing intelligent/adaptive and activity-based methodologies could reduce power losses by 20%; providing annualized savings of $23K to $43K, depending on data-center size. Intelligent/adaptive management continually adjusts the internal operating parameters of ac-dc front ends and dc-dc converters, in order to optimize efficiencies and key performance parameters. Activity-based management reduces power dissipation and consumption by controlling the intermediate bus voltage, clock frequencies, and cooling fan speeds.
Power-One’s Z-OneTM Digital IBA provides integrated power management and conversion; simplifying the implementation of both intelligent/adaptive and activity-based methodologies. An industry-standard I2C interface facilitates point-of-load converter communications with the user’s host system, ac-dc front end, and user-friendly graphical user interface. Power-One’s presentation, including block-diagrams depicting Z-One Digital IBA use in intelligent/adaptive and activity-based methodologies, and further information on the EPA ENERGY STAR Server and Data Center Conference, can be found by visiting www.energystar.gov/serverconference.