ICCD 2008, October 2008,

Towards More Sustainable Computer Design
Fred Chong
Monday 10/13/08, 9:20-10:30 am

Fred Chong

Director, Greenscale Center for Energy-Efficient Computing

University of California at Santa Barbara


Abstract:

Computing devices are the fastest-growing segment of carbon production into our atmosphere, and their continued proliferation will have substantial impact on our global environment, energy needs, and IT-based economy. A modern server consumes as much energy in a year as an SUV. Worldwide, businesses now spend $30 billion annually to power their data centers, and that cost is growing rapidly. Energy expenditures are already becoming more significant than the cost of machines, making energy efficiency a critical factor in the future success of our information technology infrastructure. To meet these challenges, the computer design community must leverage its strengths and embrace new metrics, disciplines, and technologies.

In this talk, I will explore some of these challenges and opportunities, including how energy and carbon metrics might change design decisions, why the cost of manufacturing needs to be evaluated alongside device usage using life-cycle analysis, how aggressive cooling technologies might be key to offsetting rising energy costs, why emerging computing and storage technologies could be the key to more energy-proportional computing, and how the hardware and software of servers need to be more robust for energy management.


Bio:

Fred Chong is the Director of Computer Engineering and a Professor of Computer Science at UCSB. He also directs the Greenscale effort in Energy-Efficient Computing, which involves over 20 multi-disciplinary faculty. Chong recieved his Ph.D. from MIT in 1996 and was a faculty member and Chancellor's fellow at UC Davis from 1997-2005. He is a recipient of the NSF CAREER award and his research interests include emerging technologies for computing, multicore and embedded architectures, computer security, and sustainable computing.

 



Green Computing: Big Challenges and Little Solutions
Chris Rowen, Ph.D.
Monday 10/13/08, 18:30-20:00 pm

Chris Rowen, Ph.D.

Founder, Chief Technology Officer, member of the board of directors, and Tensilica's first president.


Abstract:

Green Computing may be the buzz word of the decade, but reflects serious technical challenges. Our expectations for responsiveness of computing, entertainment and mobile platforms, combined with alway-on high-bandwidth wireless Internet access, drives the raw computing demand ever higher. The direct cost of power and cooling, plus the indirect but real global energy impact mandate basic rethinking. Happily, new notions of processor technology, combined with the cummulative benefits of a decade of mobile system-on-chip design, gives us some leverage points on the problem. This talk describes five key innovations that offer significant hope for systematic improvement in energy efficiency, while enabling dramatic scaling of? useful performance and cost reduction. These innovation, in automated processor design, multi-processor architecture, process technology, power management and software power management form the technological foundation for a new era of green electronic design.


Bio:

Chris Rowen, Ph.D.Founder, Chief Technology Officer, member of the board of directors, and Tensilica's first president. He was a pioneer in the development of RISC architecture at Stanford in the early 80s and helped start MIPS Computer Systems Inc. in 1984, where he served as Vice President for Microprocessor Development. Most recently, he was Vice President and General Manager of the Design Reuse Group of Synopsys Incorporated. He received a B.A. in physics from Harvard University and M.S. and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford University.

 



Lean IT: Lead or Die
Christian Belady, P.E.
Tuesday 10/14/08, 8:30-9:30 am

Christian Belady, P.E.

Principal Power and Cooling Architect

Microsoft


Abstract:

In the 90's companies in the computer industry captured market share using lean manufacturing techniques. In this decade, the arbitrage opportunity is in "Lean IT". Today, most IT operations are either failing to recognize this or are locked into legacy systems that are driving unsustainable cost growth. This presentation will provide an overview of industry trends, why there is the need for efficiency in data center operations and how Microsoft is driving transformational change in its IT operations to significantly reduce costs.


Bio:

A recognized leader in the industry, Christian Belady is Microsoft's Principal Power and Cooling Architect for Global Foundation Services where his role is to improve both efficiency and cost in their online services infrastructure. In addition, his responsibilities included driving initiatives for sustainability in the data center and infrastructure space. Prior to joining Microsoft, Christian was a Distinguished Technologist for HP where his responsibilities included driving the technology direction in HP's server products and their environments as well as driving industry data center initiatives. In addition, his earlier employers include; Convex Computers (acquired by HP), TI and IBM. With over 60 US patents, Christian is an ASME Fellow, an IMAPS Fellow and a founding member of ASHRAE's TC9.9, which is responsible for developing data center guidelines. He was one of the early architects of the Green Grid, and continues to participate actively with the group. He also works closely with government agencies globally to define efficiency metrics for data centers and servers. Christian has published several dozen papers and has a featured speaker on power and cooling trends at events across the industry. Since the late 90s, the focus of his publications has been on data centers and the industry's need for engineering efficient computing environments. Christian has engineering degrees from Cornell University (BS) and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (MS) and a business degree from the University of Texas at Dallas (MA).

 


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