TC38-TG2 - Energy Efficiency

Scope - Programme of work - TC38

Upcoming meetings

Bi-weekly conference calls

Activities - Scope and contacts

Energy Efficient Performance Standard (presentation)

The first work item of the TG is to develop a standard to enable the measurement of the Energy Efficient Performance of a notebook (in AC mode) and desktop computer.

The Ecma standard was approved by the 2008 Ecma General Assembly. The supporting benchmark, developed in collaboration with BAPCo, is scheduled to be completed in time for the implementation of Energy Star Tier II implementation in January 2009.

Abstract

Driven primarily by concerns over global warming along with desires to decrease the demand for both domestic and foreign oil resources, regulators worldwide are paying ever increasing attention to the energy efficiency (EE) of ICT & CE products.

The white goods sector for example has found simple ways to measure the EE of their products. However, due in part to the complexities of products in the ICT & CE sector, regulators and industry have historically focused on limiting power consumption for each of a variety of singular power states, both defined and inferred, rather than a true energy efficiency measure. This approach is far from optimal for the environment, for technology development or for the consumer as it fails to take into account the usage patterns users of these devices employ them under.

Background and History

Ecma issued the world’s first environmentally conscious design standard (ECMA-341) for the ICT & CE industries in 2003. This standard is aimed at the designer and provides pragmatic advice on how to reduce the environmental footprint of a product at the design stage.

Through the development of ECMA-341 it was recognised that the energy efficiency part of the standard was incomplete. One significant gap for the ICT & CE industry is how to measure the true energy efficient performance of a given product.

The initial focus of the Ecma work is at a system level for desktop and notebook (in AC mode) computers. The standard will be OS and platform agnostic, easy to use, will not impede businesses (such as build to order), and will have practical relevance to the target audience.

Initial work

Ecma will produce a Standard that will provide detail on how to measure the Energy Efficient Performance (EEP) of their designs. It will also define the key criteria for a benchmark suite that will be used to measure the EEP of the design.

There are three components to the Ecma TC38-TG2 standard:

1. System classifications
2. Compute performance and capability measurements
3. Measurement of the Energy consumed for a typical defined workload/duty cycle (this will be kept constant for each classification to enable comparisons to be made).

Energy Efficient Performance

Simply measuring the Energy Efficiency of a computer is not sufficient. The performance and capability of the product must also be taken into account. And so the term “Energy Efficient Performance” is used (EEP). The car is a good analogy to use. For example, you would not buy a two seat highly fuel efficient car if you had a family of 6 to transport. You also would not use a motorbike if you were a salesman needing to transport large product samples in the trunk. Likewise when buying an ICT/CE product, fitness for purpose must be part of the decision making process alongside energy efficiency.

Figure 1.0 - Energy Efficient Performance (EEP) model

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