At the Hot Chips chip design conference at Stanford University last week, chip researchers spelled out some of the toughest computing problems of the future and the solutions to deal with them. Pioneers and visionaries talked about running into technological brick walls, and about ways to get around them. But they warned that the ever-increasing cost of making the newest chips will have an impact on the entire food chain of electronic products where chips are used.
Moore’s Law Slowdown — Researchers on a panel said they think that the law observed in the 1960s by Intel Chairman Emeritus Gordon Moore — who predicted accurately that chips double their chip capacity every 18 months — which has held true since the 1960s is past its prime. Now it’s getting harder and harder to deliver performance improvements without generating excessive power. The days of easy gains through manufacturing advances are coming to an end, and chip makers and designers have to turn to more exotic and creative techniques just to stay on the Moore’s Law treadmill. That means that it’s going to cost more money to make relatively modest gains in chip performance. With the current recession, that will just making things harder on chip makers whose ranks have thinned dramatically in the past few years. Here’s a comparison every gamer can understand: If Moore’s Law meant that chip capacity would double every three years instead of every two years, we would be stuck playing games on a device that was no more powerful than a Nintendo 64, a video game console that came out in 1996.
“Modern supercomputers can no longer focus only on raw performance,” said David Turek, vice president of deep computing at IBM. “To be commercially viable these systems most also be energy efficient. IBM has a rich history of innovation that has significantly increased energy efficiency of our systems at all levels of the system that are designed to simultaneously reduce data center costs and energy use.”
Richmond, Virginia, June 11, 2009 – Influent Corp. announces the release of a white paper validating a 25% reduction in total server energy consumption using pulsed air jets. For example, a 25% reduction for a given data center with 10,000 server racks would equate to $64.5MM in power savings over the 5 year life of a server.
A cleantech investment portal is scheduled to launch July, 1st 2009. The goal is to become the forum for connecting real cleantech opportunities with cleantech investors. The site will feature a directory of all cleantech venture capital firms, angel networks and private investors. It will also serve as a forum for cleantech based companies to post their executive summary, business plan, pitch document, requested investment amount, etc.
The site also plans to create a monthly venture report which will be emailed to a global network of registered cleantech investors. Cleantech-Capital.net boasts a pre-established investor network of over 2000 cleantech investors, and those numbers are growing fast. If all goes according to plan, the site could become the eHarmony of Cleantech, making matches between investors and cleantech companies for years to come.
Fellow startups - check out these helpful insights from Greentech Media and take a look at how the big guys are gearing up their green initiatives.
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Unilever, IBM and other companies said they are constantly investigating green technologies that would help them conserve energy or sell products to customers who embrace efficiencies.
What do big companies like Unilever, IBM or Frito-Lay want from cleantech startups? The answer appears to be technologies that will help them go “green” or sell the things they already understand.
Unilever, which makes food as well as personal and household cleaning products, is interested in smart grid technologies, but not because it wants to enter the information technology market. The company is keenly interested in how consumers use water and other resources at home, said Phil Giesler, director of innovation and corporate ventures at Unilever.
“We realized that the major water use is not in the process of making the products but in how consumers use them,” said Giesler at the Dow Jones Alternative Energy Innovation near San Francisco on Wednesday. Giesler joined other company executives on a panel about what large companies want to startups. “That realization has led us to come up with formulations that need less water” to use.
It was a proud moment for Virginians as Aneesh Chopra, the state’s Secretary of Technology, was named CTO by President Obama on Saturday April 18, 2009. Chopra was in the running with many of Silicon Valley’s most prominent figures, including Steve Ballmer, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and Eric Schmidt (among many others).
Many feel Chopra received the nod because of his track record. His work in Virginia has included initiatives like Learning Apps Development Challenge, which encourages middle-school math students to develop their own iPhone apps. He has also developed a state-funded “venture capital fund” to allow government agencies to try out risky but promising new approaches to delivering their services or improving their productivity.
Representatives from Google and various Silicon Valley venture capital firms are praising President Obama’s decision. Tim O’Reilly has created a list entitled eight reason to be excited about Chopra.
It’s an exciting time. The nation’s first CTO is not only extremely qualified, but his Virginia background signals the growth of a national technology movement, beyond traditional hotbeds like Silicon Valley. With a new voice for Virginia in Washington, many are hoping for a renewed focus on funding the state’s technology development companies and programs.
SAN JOSE, CA – A thermal management hot spot, the mission of the IEEE Semiconductor Thermal Management, Modeling and Measurement Symposium(SEMI-THERM) is to provide an annual forum for the exchange of the latest technical developments in thermal management of electronic devices, components and systems. Held March 15th-19th, this year’s Semi-Therm features over 45 exhibitors and additional technical presentations on the latest thermal management progress in both academic and commercial sectors.
Semi-Therm Exibitors
Featured sessions include a luncheon hosted by Chandrakant Patel, Fellow and Director of HP’s Sustainable Ecosystems Lab regarding Sustainable Information Technology Ecosystems. Another highlight of the week, a tutorial from Kevin Skadron, of the University of Virginia, entitled Making Sense of Recent Research in Temperature-Aware Design.
Thermal Management Software Exibit
This is all well and good, but why am I here? I am serving as a representative of Influent while acting as a sponge, soaking up the thermal management community. I am truly interested to discover what makes this community ‘tick’. Everyone I meet seems extremely close-knit, aware of each other’s accomplishments and open to learning. I found myself giving a large amount of impromptu presentations about Influent’s technology and receiving very positive feedback. Many comments validated that the limitations of fans and other conventional cooling solutions and the need for a ‘new approach’ technology like Influent’s. I also ran across a particular vendor that could be a powerful partner for accelerating Influent’s modeling capabilities. MacroFlow would allow Influent to create system-level thermal design analysis without intensive CFD modeling, greatly reducing the lead time necessary when designing new components and products.
Attendance of Semi-Therm validates that this event is an ideal venue for Influent to become more involved. The conference draws the world’s most notable figures in thermal management and provides a forum to present new ideas. Look out for Influent’s exhibit next year!
The academic resources, concentrated community of engineers, and highly skilled former HP executives drew Influent to house its operational arm, SynnOps, LLC, in Corvallis, OR. But wait, there’s more. Based upon a 2009 study released by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Green Power Communities Program, Corvallis is also officially the ‘greenest’ city in America. According to the EPA, the city of 55,000, about 90 minutes from Portland, purchases 13 percent of its electricity from environmentally-friendly sources, or more than 100 million kilowatts (100,000 megawatts). The city’s power suppliers are comprised of Bonneville Environmental Foundation, Consumers Power and Pacific Power.
Downtown Corvallis, Oregon
Influent was attracted to the intellectual resources in Corvallis, but now the unique city is also the preeminent eco-friendly community. Could there be a better place to harvest resources for a cleantech startup? We don’t think so. As we continue to pursue the development of clean, energy efficient, breakthrough solutions; we are excited to further our relationship with SynnOps, LLC and the greater Corvallis community.
To add more fuel to the fire check out these Corvallis accolades:
On February 18, 2008, Corvallis was named the fifth smartest city in America by Forbes Online Magazine.
A survey by the National Science Foundation found Corvallis ranks second in the nation for the number of scientists as a percentage of total employment (12.7 percent) as of 2006.
The February 2004 issue of the Harvard Business Review ranks Corvallis as the 15th most creative city in the nation.
Corvallis ranked fourth in nation for the highest number of patents issued by city (USA Today, 2002.)
Corvallis ranked 7th out of about 500 U.S. cities for best places to do business (BizDemographics, 2002.)
Influent’s CEO, Larry Hatch, announced plans to attend the first Going Green East conference, located in Boston, MA. The Bay Area’s Going Green conference has been such a success, that is has birthed an east coast version. The event, scheduled for March 9th-11th, promises to draw cutting-edge greentech CEOs, investors and other prominent industry players. The event will honor the GoingGreen Top 50 Private Companies and feature 50 greentech CEOs that will pitch their market strategies to a panel of industry experts in the “CEO Showcases.”
Influent’s CEO, Larry Hatch, was recently featured on Forbes.com for spearheading the company’s 2007/2008 $1.5 million capital raise. Times are tight but there are still investors looking to support promising startups. Hatch continues to raise additional funds while juggling the management of sales, recruiting and other strategic initiatives. Visit Forbes.com to receive insights from Hatch and other executives on weathering the economic storm.
Kasey Hayes is the primary contributor of Influent's blog. Kasey is a member of the Influent founding team and currently serves as a Marketing Manager. Kasey has an advantage when it comes to startups; her family has been involved in the technology startup business for over 20 years. This exposure gives her a unique perspective into the day-to-day life of bringing a disruptive technology to market. This outlook is accompanied by her deep interest in furthering the cleantech ecosystem through applied innovation. E-mail Kasey.
