VideoAnd those costs are coming down: LCD prices have dropped to about the same levels that similarly sized CRTs occupied just a few years ago. "Non-promotional prices are at an average of $300 for 15-inch models, $400 for 17-inch models, and $700 for 19-inch models," says Duboise. Unfortunately, the sudden wholesale disposal of old CRTs — which can't be easily recycled — has inundated landfills, where the monitors slowly release toxic chemicals such as lead (up to eight pounds per unit), phosphor, and barium. That flood will gradually subside as CRTs are supplanted by LCDs, which contain fewer toxic substances and are more easily recycled.
Thin Clients: Desktops on a Diet
Another way to lighten the landfill load (and your company's budgetary burden) would be to switch from "fat clients" to "thin clients." "Client," in this sense, simply refers to a computer on the receiving end of information that's doled out from another computer, called the "server." Personal computers are considered "fat" because each employee's PC stores the word-processing software, spreadsheets, and other applications that he or she uses.
The idea behind thin-client computing, also known as server-based computing, is to give each employee an inexpensive workstation stripped down to the bare essentials: control devices (for example, a keyboard and mouse) and a display. The applications could be used by each client computer, but they would reside only on a server — down the hall or halfway around the world, wherever is most effective. This server-based model has tempted businesses for several years, and recent advances in support technologies suggest that its time may be at hand.
The advantages are compelling, says Kevin Strohmeyer, senior product manager for the Sun Ray thin-client line at Sun Microsystems. "Let's say a PC consumes maybe 50 or 60 watts," he says. "With a thin-client system, you're looking at maybe 15 or 20 watts. So in a corporation like Sun, with 29,000 to 30,000 of these thin clients deployed, we believe we save anywhere from $5 to $9 million in power cost in just a year's time." Server-based applications also require fewer people to install and maintain individual systems dispersed across an enterprise, observes Strohmeyer: "When you need to upgrade your software, put in a faster processor, or add more memory, it happens in the data-center room."
"We believe that the life expectancy of a thin client is over 10 years," adds Strohmeyer, "because there are no moving parts and there's nothing to wear out." Considering that the current PC replacement cycle runs about three to five years, a longer cycle would benefit companies that didn't need to buy new machines — and it would benefit the landfills, incinerators, and recycling facilities that didn't need to cope with so much discarded hardware.
Blade Servers: Saving by Sharing
Fitted inside a rack-mountable enclosure, each blade server — often simply called a "blade" — typically includes its own memory, storage, and processors. Unlike traditional, stand-alone servers, however, the individual blades in each enclosure save energy by sharing a power supply, cooling system, network cables, and other support components; diskless blades share storage devices, too. Businesses also reap additional payoffs from greater reliability, simpler system management, and a smaller "footprint" in the server room.
A new generation of blade-server software promises to allocate resources more efficiently, so businesses can run fewer servers and use less power, says Jeffrey J. Hewitt, an analyst with technology research firm Gartner in Stamford, Connecticut. Server manufacturers who've joined the blade bandwagon include well-known names like Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Sun as well as smaller players such as RackSaver and RLX Technologies. And no wonder, says Hewitt: just under 30,000 blades were shipped in 2002, but that number has jumped to about 169,000 in 2003 and to a projected 340,000 in 2004.
A rack of blade servers, it's true, generally costs more than the stand-alone counterpart. IBM's Xeon-powered BladeCenter HS20, for example, is priced at about $2,700 including the software; the equivalent stand-alone IBM xSeries 225 costs $1,400. Despite a name that rings of science fiction, however, companies that adopt blade-server technology usually recover real-world savings that make up the difference; the power savings do right by the environment, too.
Fuel Cells: More-Benign Batteries
Notebook computers, cellular phones, PDAs, and other mobile devices around the office run on batteries, a time-tested technology that provides a reasonable balance between power, cost, size, and weight. What's less reasonable is that batteries contain heavy metals and other toxic substances including lead, cadmium, nickel, lithium, and mercury, all which can cause environmental problems after they find their way into landfills.
By comparison, micro fuel cells (MFCs) generate electricity through a chemical reaction between oxygen and a fuel such as hydrogen or methanol. "The fuel can be made from a wide range of comparatively benign materials," says David Hart, a researcher at London's Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine. "They could provide up to eight hours [of power] on a single charge of cartridge fuel," adds Hart, "and recharge in seconds."
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