Roadmap to Greener Computing

A concise and accessible introduction to green computing and green IT, this book addresses how computer science and the computer infrastructure affect the environment and presents the main challenges in making computing more environmentally friendly. The authors review the methodologies, designs, frameworks, and software development tools that can be used in computer science to reduce energy consumption and still compute efficiently. They also focus on Computer Aided Design (CAD) and describe what design engineers and CAD software applications can do to support new streamlined business directions and improve the environment.

As computers become faster, use more energy, and older models become obsolete more quickly, the question is often asked: What can the engineering and computer science community do to make computing greener? Roadmap to Greener Computing defines the challenges involved in making computing more environmentally friendly and includes methods and techniques for overcoming them.

The book provides a concise, simplified, and easily accessible examination of how computer infrastructure affects the environment. Divided into six stand-alone chapters, the text addresses green computing topics such as power consumption, cooling, manufacturing issues, and computer disposal as well as hot topics such as cloud computing and noise pollution in IT. It also explores the Eco-Design concept and the impact of CAD on the environment as well as potential areas for improvement in the future.

Features

• Details the impact of the computer infrastructure life cycle on the environment and solutions for greener IT
• Presents methodologies, designs, frameworks and software development tools that can be used to compute energy efficiently
• Discusses designer and CAD applications that can reduce damage of products and the environment
• Examines noise pollution caused by computers and computerusers, its effects on their daily lives, and how to counteract it
• Covers the many options for handling obsolete computers, including upgrading and recycling
• Introduces the green capabilities of cloud computing

Written by professionals with backgrounds in mechanical engineering, environmental engineering, design, software engineering, and computer science, this book discusses design and the environment, includes references to literature, and presents concrete day-to-day business scenarios, supplying a clear balance between theory and practice. It analyzes methodologies, designs, frameworks, and software development tools that can then be used to reduce the energy consumption or increase energy efficiencies in computing and influence the environment positively.