{mosimage}Holy...Crap... The machine I'm using right now gobbles up between forty and sixty watts (depending on how much I'm asking it to do for me). The power needed to power my three hard drives, two optical drives, and two CPU's make my machine a power hog, I'll admit it.
Sun Microsystems has just released a desktop client that consumes four watts, less than a typical night lite. Of course, the Sun Ray 2 doesn't exactly have five drives and a dual core processor. It's a desktop client, used for logging into a server where software is run. That server, of course, requires power, but it can also be used by hundreds of clients at once. The reduction of power for people using Sun's Global Desktop Software is significant.
The Sun Ray manages quite a punch out of this tiny package, and can display on two 1920x1200 monitors simultaneously for a ridiculous combined resolution. Of course, two 1920x1200 definitely constitutes power-hogging, but sometimes even an ecogeek needs more screen.
The Sun Ray is less useful for us home users, of course, because none of us have servers running that we can log into from our Sun Rays. But someday, maybe we will. The low power, low cost, and simplicity of these desktop clients might make them eventually marketable to lower-end PC users. And that might make the power drain of the personal computer movement much less noticeable.
Spotted at TreeHugger
