Iria

Sunday at the CeBIT trade show in Hanover, Germany, Fujitsu Siemens said that it was set to launch by mid-year a PC that uses zero power when it is powered down.
____________
Source: Tech-Ex

WaltC

I can already do that on any machine by simply selecting the "off" switch when powering down--which is usually what I do when I "power down"...

Apart from that, I wonder if this is the exciting "gerbils on a treadmill" approach to "green" that I've heard about...?

IvanV

Actually, no. Computers go to a sort of stand by state where there still is some amount of power in the components in order to avoid the jump from 0V to full voltage when the device is turned on. This was introduced as part of the ATX standard to prolong the life of computer components. Still, reverting to the plain and simple true power off switches is hardly innovation, but green seems to be the colour of the moment, so anything that can be labeled as such is good and sells.

But looking at this from a more critical stand point, considering that both those who introduced the power off state we know today (and I wouldn't dare to call industry leaders ignorant) and the ones who are trying to revive the true power off are right, if we go back to the old way we shall save a small amount of energy but we shall also compensate for the ecological gain that would come from that by producing slightly more electronic waste.

__________________
Feed the porkers and don't touch the buttons!