Reducing effects of Motherboards on Nature

We all are part of the noise revolving around the effects of  modern

lifestyle on our earth. However, efforts are being made from micro to macro

level to diminish these effects on the nature.  Businesses are also a part of

this initiative, with lots being   done by enterprises like cutting down travel

expenses by using video conferencing, making infrastructure 'green' with green

datacenters, green buildings, etc. There has been efforts  being put by

manufacturers to make devices soft on energy consumption without affecting

overall performance. Here, we are moving inside the desktop and checking out

what leading motherboard manufacturers are doing to make their boards 'green'.

Let's start with the effect of  new interface techs on power consumption.

USB 3.0



In this issue we have done performance tests on motherboards that support

this latest version of USB. Other than enhanced throughput, one feature in this

new version of USB is more efficient power-usage protocols. USB 3.0 works on the

principle of providing more power when required and wasting lesser power when

not. USB 3.0 avoids device polling in favor of a new interrupt-driven protocol,

which means non-active or idle devices (which aren't being charged by the USB

port) won't have their power drained by the host controller as it looks for

active data traffic. Instead, the devices will send the host a signal to begin

data transfer. Minimum device operating voltage is dropped from 4.4 V to 4 V.

New power management features include supports for idle, sleep and suspend

states, as well as link-, device-, and function-level power management. Devices

can communicate new information such as their latency tolerance to the host,

which allows better power performance.

SATA 6 Gbps (Revision 3.0)



Another technology that is making headlines these days is SATA 6 Gbps. Like

USB 3.0, this one too comes with enhanced power management capability. Earlier

Revision of SATA (Revision 2.6) introduced two power modes (Partial and Slumber)

on the interface that works independently from power management schemes in

storage devices. To lower power consumption, devices can power off SATA portion

of circuitry when not in use. This feature effectively reduces power consumption

in battery operated devices. But in SATA Revision 2.6, devices had to move from

Partial mode to Active mode before they could enter Slumber mode. Besides, in

SATA Revision 2.6, enabled peripherals have to wait for permission from the host

to remove power supply to interface. In the latest SATA Revision 3.0, there is

automatic transition from Partial to Slumber mode, which enables either host or

device to enter Slumber mode automatically which in turn increases time for

which SATA interface can be powered off. Other than these improvements although

6Gbps Phy designs may require higher active power depending on the specific

design and implementation. Power efficiency of the overall system should not

increase drastically because the active time required to complete the transfer

of a given amount of data is reduced by almost half  as compared to 3Gbps.

Other power saving features



Let's see some of the technologies used by motherboard vendors to improve

power efficiency in their brands.

ASUS EPU: For intelligently detecting power loading requirements and then

optimizing power consumption, ASUS came up with energy processing unit (EPU

chip) on their motherboards. This chip analyzes actual CPU load and then changes

power saving settings of system on the fly to create a power efficient

environment. EPU works with other components to detect, feedback and take

action.  EPU chip also comes with a GUI where user can feed settings.

GIGABYTE Dynamic Energy Saver 2 and Auto Green: Dynamic Energy Saver 2 is a

combination of hardware & software components to provide optimized power usage.

When load on CPU is less then these features allow fewer power phases which in

turn helps in reducing power consumption. With the help of simple UI, you can

control power saving features with the click of a button. Using different modes

of this feature, user can not only record how much power is currently consumed

by CPU but also see how much power they have saved till date. Another unique

feature used by GIGABYTE motherboards is called 'Auto Green'. Here Bluetooth

cell phone is used to enable system power saving. If configured cell phone is

out of range of motherboard Bluetooth receiver, a specific power saving mode is

enabled automatically.

MSI's Drmos, APS and GreenPower Center: The approach of MSI in saving power

consumption is a bit different. They are using Integrated Driver Mosfet

technology on board. MSI boards also use active phase shifting which dynamically

adjusts power consumption and on top of these features, there is 'GreenPower

center' UI to control power usage by users.