Green up: 'Green' hot, from our expert guests

When we started this column seven months ago, I posed the question: What is “green,” anyway? I’d hoped the answer would come from a variety of sources talking about green, low power, energy efficiency, and related ideas. To test whether Green really is as Deep as I think it is in embedded, I’m taking a look back this month.

I’ve combed through recent material available right now in our print, E-letter, white paper, and broadcast archives to see how many experts are bringing up green themes. The answer is “lots” – the ideas are varied, the viewpoints are interesting, and the affirmation of this concept’s importance to our industry is exciting. Here’s a sample of what I see scanning our websites.

In our print publications and E-letters, you’ll find these articles:

·    Altera discussing design separation and energy-efficient motor control

·    Emerson Climate Technologies talking about ZigBee enabling the smart grid

·    GreenPeak Technologies illustrating energy sources for ultra-low-power wireless sensor networks

·    Virtual Extension examining flooding-based mesh wireless sensor network approaches

·    Akros Silicon showing off new Power over Ethernet chips with integrated digital isolation

·    Actel covering design techniques for FPGA power optimization

·    Octasic presenting ideas on power versus performance in DSPs

In our white papers database (if you haven’t registered, you’ll be asked for information once), a quick glance pulls up these features:

·    Intel showing a vision of industrial control in a greener world and Windows Embedded CE 6.0 on an Atom processor

·    Texas Instruments proposing how to take energy efficiency to the next level

·    Mentor Graphics analyzing power management for portable consumer electronics devices

·    VirtualMetrix talking about software to manage all processor performance resources

·    Microchip Technology exploring MCUs with nanoWatt XLP technology

In our E-cast archives (registration gets you archived slides and moderator/guest audio including Q&As), a search for green-related themes brings up these presentations:

·    MontaVista Software and Intel showing how Moblin technology and the Atom processor create a fast boot, energy-managed environment for longer battery life in all kinds of mobile devices beyond just phones

·    Freescale Semiconductor explaining how digital signal controllers can improve the efficiency of solar inverters

·    Mentor Graphics and Synopsys discussing the role of software in low-power hardware

This is just a quick sample, but it shows the range of thought leaders and ideas quite nicely. Combine all these ideas with the ones we’ve featured in the previous six months of Deep Green and this month’s Green In selections, and this topic is “green” hot.

Keep following us for the latest in Deep Green ideas that will help you make greener, lower-power, more energy-efficient embedded computing products.

Editor’s note: Lead image courtesy of NASA and the European Space Agency