Platform: the unfortunately named ProxZzzy

According to Wang, there's a tremendous amount of power being wasted by users who simply don't power down their systems when they're not using them - he cited a survey that showed that more than 50 per cent of users leave their systems powered up when they don't really need to, many simply to avoid long boot times.

The solution? An extremely low-power circuit that will handle network traffic when the main system is in deep sleep. This circuitry will, among other things, examine packets as they arrive and decide whether they are important enough to wake up the PC which it serves.

In Wang's example, a PC with an idle power of 22W can be instead put into deep sleep and its network-sniffing device can run at a mere 0.8W - but still be smart enough and alert enough to rouse the PC from deep sleep when something worthwhile arrives via a wired or wireless network.

As Wang put it: "We could save a tremendous amount of power. This is a humongous amount of power."

Enable ProxZzzy on 150 million PCs and save $6bn worldwide in power costs

The protocol for this scheme has been given the too-cute-by-half name of ProxZzzy, and has been submitted to the European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA) for review, where it has been given the more sober designation of ECMA-393.

In ProxZzzy's current implementation in Intel Labs, its circuitry resides on the NIC. However, Wang noted: "We could put it anywhere in the platform. We could put it in the CPU, in the chipset - it works anywhere. You just have these little guys minding the store, and the big guys sleep." ®

Bootnote

Wen-Hann Wang may be the director of research for both circuits and systems at Intel Labs, but he made it clear where his sympathy lies when he said: "A circuit is at the bottom of the totem pole. It does all the work and no one appreciates it. The system gets all the glory."

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