Green Computing

Abstract

Green computing has been an active research area which studies an efficient use of computing resources. It is a growing import subject that creates an urgent need to train next generation computer scientists or practitioners to think “green.” However, green computing has not yet been well taught in computer science (CS) or computer engineering programs (CE) programs, partly due to the lack of rooms to add a new course to those programs. Presented in this paper is an effort to reform core concepts of CS/CE to inculcate green computing in subjects such as algorithms, and operating systems. Green computing refers to the practice of using computing resources more efficiently while maintaining or increasing overall performance. Sustainable IT services require the integration of green computing practices such as power management, virtualization, improving cooling technology, recycling, electronic waste disposal, and optimization of the IT infrastructure to meet sustainability requirements. Recent studies have shown that costs of power utilized by IT departments can approach 50% of the overall energy costs for an organization. Creating the next generation of power-efficient parallel computers requires a rethink of the mechanisms and methodology for building parallel applications. Energy constraints have pushed us into a regime where parallelism will be ubiquitous rather than limited to highly specialized high-end supercomputers. New execution models are required to span all scales, from desktop to supercomputer. IT infrastructure is definitely going green. From significant new regulations for IT equipment disposal to stringent energy-efficiency specifications for PCs and monitors to national standards for data center power savings, Green IT is an "in" topic. But many problems are unsolved. Information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure accounts for roughly 3 percent of global electricity usage and the same percentage of greenhouse gasses (GHGs), but it seems to have a far greater role in the green debate than that. Many of the solutions being introduced for reducing the carbon footprint via more efficient energy use worldwide are heavily dependent on IT.