PowerSource

It’s now taken as a given that power is the leading cost in a data center. But what goes into the term “power?” Power goes beyond the cost of the electricity to include the power delivery infrastructure, the cooling infrastructure, and the cost of the investment money to put in these supporting systems.

James Hamilton, who's a member of Microsoft's Data Center Futures Team, wanted put numbers to infrastructure costs, including amortization periods: For example, a server might get written off over 3 years, but cooling infrastructure costs might have a 15 year period. His findings are on his blog post, Cost of Power in Large-Scale Data Centers. And if you want to run what-if scenarios for different amortization periods or electricity costs, or money costs, yo...Read More

Speaking of the auto industry, Egil Juliussen, principal automotive research analyst at iSuppli, put together a chart to compare the current economic debacle and its projected impact on the auto industry with past recessions.

In summary, the debacle of 2008 is pretty bad.

A telling statistic is that cars sold per thousand in the US is way down: 43.8 in 2008 (projected) compared to 54.1 in the 1974 recession and 50.4 in 1980.

The Honda Fit is the first "minicar" to get a top rating from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Here's what IIHS requires for a car to receive a top rating: "... vehicles have to be available with electronic stability control and get a top score of "good" in front-, side- and rear-impact crash tests. Possible ratings in each category include good, acceptable, marginal and poor. They must also offer electronic stability control, either as standard or optional equipment."

In 2007, ESC wasn't available on inexpensive cars like the Fit even as an option: The cost of ESC el...Read More

When on the Megaman site looking for information on DORS (dim-on-switching) technology, I saw several models of CFLs (compact fluorescent lights) that encased the spiral/curved fluorescent bulbs inside a globe (pictured below on the left.) This seemed like overkill and a belt-and-suspenders approach to a light bulb, but I assumed it was for aesthetic reasons.

However, reader Ray Hulinsky (thanks, Ray!) sent in this link to an announcement by the British governmental health organization, the Health Protection Agency (HPA), that  some ...Read More

After reading, This was not the right application for a compact fluorescent light, reader Paul Holden, an engineer with NH Research, wrote in about his experience with CFLs:

"I used CFLs to replace the 40 Watt incandescent bulbs in my garage door opener. Because of the mechanical vibration of the unit, bulbs tend to have a short life in this application, even the ones advertised as "ruggedized". I thought CFLs might last longer, not having a delicate filament.

"Within a few weeks of installing them, the opener developed a problem where the lights did not turn off after the normal 5 minute timeout that occurs after opening or closing the door. Being an EE, I immediately suspected a welded relay contact due, perhaps, to inductive voltage flyback from the CFL bulbs....Read More

I watched the movie , "Get Smart" over the weekend. It has a minor plot point that involves being able to break into a laptop that relies on a flat fingerprint-sensor for access authorization. Maxwell Smart is able to fool the fingerprint check by breathing on the flat sensor: The moisture in his breath makes the last fingerprint used on it visible, and opens up access to the laptop.

I've had a couple of conversations in the past with the folks at Authentec, which manufacturers slide sensors for fingerprint-based access control. A slide sensor isn't vulnerable to "the old blow your germy breath across the touch sensor surface trick" (as Max might say) because it uses a sliding acti...Read More

I had the chance to speak with Masoud Beheshti, director of battery charge solutions in TI's battery management solutions group, about the efficiency and cost aspects of eCoupled's wireless power technology in portable consumer devices like cell phones or Bluetooth headsets. (TI has announced it is teaming with Fulton to develop the eCoupled technology to wirelessly charge battery-powered electronic devices.)

Beheshti said that based on their prototypes that incorporate the wireless power receivers into hand-held devices, they felt confident that they can achieve 90-95% efficiency for the wireless transfer technology. This compares with the borin...Read More

Texas Instruments announced today that it’s working with Fulton Innovation, developers of the eCoupled wireless power transfer technology, to "accelerate development of efficient wireless power solutions that can charge portable devices without traditional power cords." TI's interest in eCoupled is to provide ICs for eCoupled -powered battery charging systems for "low-, medium- and high-power applications ranging from cell phones to notebook computers to power tools and other rechargeable applications."

How does eCoupledwireless power transfer work? According to a ...Read More

In talking with Tom Ribarich, the director of  International Rectifier’s Lighting Design Center,  about IR’s new control IC for dimmable CFLs (compact fluorescent lights), he mentioned that there’s a technique known as Dim on Random Switching (DORS) that allows a DORS-compatible light to be dimmed off of any household light switch.

A DORS-compatible light dims with every rapid ON/OFF action seconds, adjusting from 100% to 66% to 33% and finally 5%. You reset the light to full brightness by switching off the lamp for more than 3 seconds and then switching it on again. Almost any light in your house can now be dimmable without the need for a specialized switch or costly rewiring. The control intelligence has migrated from the building infrastructure to a light bulb.

Here’s a l...Read More

Here’s another candidate for my collection of things-you-don’t-necessarily-associate-with-needing-a-USB-port: A coffee warmer. Yet another instance of how the USB port is becoming as important for power sourcing as for information sourcing.

From the Kotula’s catalog: USB Coffee Warmer: “The solution to your cold coffee dilemma! Finally...Read More

IBM and International Broadband Electric Communications (IBEC) will team to install Broadband over Power Line (BPL) networks at electric cooperatives throughout the eastern US. From the press release, “IBEC will focus on providing broadband services to underserved residents in rural America.”

From the Wall Street Journal article, “Rural cooperatives, responding to their member-owners, have tried to find ways to get broadband installed. International Broadband developed repeaters that can easily be attached to power lines every quarter of a mile to maintain the signal. And the U.S. Department of Agriculture has made loans a...Read More

As someone who’s sensitive to buying replacement battery packs for power equipment, I liked the idea of an ultracap-powered drill. And now there’s an ultracap-powered LED flashlight, the 5.11 tactical series Light for Life UC3.400 flashlight, which can power its three LEDs for 90 minutes on that 90-second charge. Its ultracaps are good for 50,000 charge cycles. The flashlight sells for $170; the manufacturer claims its 10-year trouble-free lifetime warrants the price.

...Read More

Mission managers for the Phoenix Mars lander said that after a week of no response from the lander, the Phoenix was probably defunct. The orbiting spacecraft will continue to listen for a few more weeks, but expectations are that the lander is permanently silent.

However, come next Martian spring, NASA will try to revive the Phoenix again, but according to an article in the NYTimes, “…the expectation is that the spacecraft’s electronics will not survive the long, deep freeze.”

How likely is it that Ph...Read More

Many power engineers are involved in motor control for robotics motion. Planning Algorithms is an excellent book available online that delves into the study of planning – not planning in a management sense, like (bleahh) Gantt charts, but planning as a way of methodizing how you foresee what your system’s response will be to any set of problems it will encounter. The system can be robotic or artificial intelligence or a general control system. Here’s an example from the book’s intro:

“A classical version of motion planning is sometimes referred to as the Piano Mover’s Problem. Imagine giving a precise computer-aided design (CAD) model of a house ...Read More

Surely one of the most irritating ways to waste energy and time is sitting in heavy traffic with the  engine idling. Is there any technology on the horizon to eliminate or mitigate traffic jams? Ants and iPhones may lead the way.

Research by collective intelligence expert Dr. Dirk Helbing of the Dresden University of Technology in Germany indicates that ants and their rough–and-ready methods of communication may be ahead of us in smoothening traffic congestion by communication and feedback of optimal routes.

“[Dr. Helbing’s] team set up an "ant motorway" with two routes of different widths ...Read More