NEC Launches "PowerMate Eco" Green PC

jdstahl writes "NEC has just released the PowerMate Eco, billed as the world's first environmentally-friendly PC. Based on a 900 MHz Transmeta Crusoe (thanks Linus!), it is ultra-compact, ultra low power, and nearly silent. Its motherboard contains no lead, and the case is made from recycled plastic. Its expandability is limited, so this is probably not a geek-box, but it seems like an appealing choice for Joe Desktop."

Comments

but how about the manufacturing process?

[quinophexx]

Ok so the motherboard is lead free as is the tft boron free. So what about all the nasty chemicals used to build components? what about when the machine reaches end of life? where will it go? Sounds like marketing FUD to me, although hopefully this is a step in the right direction I doubt it really is a "green" pc.

Re:but how about the manufacturing process?

[Gerry Gleason]

It certainly could just be marketing, but the real question is what should a company that really wants to put eco principles into practice. One organization that I have come across that helps businesses improve there processes is The Natural Step. Part of their pitch is that it is also more efficient==cost effective.

Also, we can't get there in one jump, but need to concentrate on the big ones first and keep going until we get a system that is sustainable. That's the only way we and are descendants will get to stay here in the long run.

Re:but how about the manufacturing process?

[Bobb Sledd]

I believe it's correctly termed "green" because the manufacturer has clearly put time, effort, and thought into making the machine as reasonably environmentally friendly as possible with the current technology available.

You could say something like "this nuclear power plant is environmentally friendly." Well, true that it may not harm the environment as *much* as other alternatives, but it isn't totally pollution free either; but there really isn't much manufactured that is.

Point being, I think "green" is a term much deserved by manufacturers who are thinking about the environment when building their products. I think it shows responsibility and even has a tint of higher geekdom to it.

Re:but how about the manufacturing process?

[ratamacue]

Of course they did. Beyond the core function of government, which is to protect the people from the initiation of force, ALL political issues are nothing but a battle of special interests.

Vote Libertarian

CDRW

[jhines0042]

Does anyone know how to recycle a used and discarded CDRW? Seriously. How many of these get thrown out yearly now and are they just sitting in landfills taking up space or are they recyclable?

Also applies to all those AOL CDs.

Re:CDRW

[Cheeko]

Well as far as the AOL CDs, send them to these guys. Their web design skills aren't great, but they have a cool idea for all those spam CDs. I found the statistics about how much space and weight all those CDs take up to be rather interesting. Would be fun to see the look on the faces of the AOL execs if these guys ever get around to delivering these.

Isn't Lead just one of the problems?

[Anonymous Coward]

I was under the impression that there's more than lead that's a problem in motherboards.

and what matters most to consumers

[jjshoe]

is price, and this isnt the price of a "recycle able machine"

sure. my dual proc setup is full of nasties, but i'll sell it someone after two years who will use it for another five at a quarter of the price of a green pc which will be outdated quicker and wont be able to be expanded.

price will always make or break just how "Enviromentaly friendly" something is. atleast how seriously people will take it

So what if the motherboard didn't use lead?

[t0qer]

They don't even bother to mention the other waste by products that are created from the manufacture of PCB's.

Flux wash cycle comes to mind. Sometimes some really nasty chemicals are used after a PCB or a fully assembled board goes through.

THere's some companies like culligan that provide negatively ionicly charged microbead epoxy balls to clean the flux wash of the flux and any other impurities that come out. What happens to those?

Another item to consider is the ventalation stacks coming from these pcb wash machines, most of the time they are just there for "ventilation" and do not have filtering systems on them.

I know these things because I have worked around the Dixon Landing road exit off of the 880 in Fremont CA in a number of consulting positions to these companies. Whenever you're sitting at the desk of some salesguy trying to fix his "insert windows issue here" they cannot resist telling you in great detail about the process and how wonderfully enviromentally friendly their shop is.

This is how bad it is in USA, I don't even want to think about what my wife saw in Malasia and the phillipines where these things are probably manufactured(shudders)

Re:Thanks Linus!

[blakestah]

You engineer software for Transmeta, but what the hell, we'll just give you credit for creating their processors too!

You don't get Crusoe.

Crusoe uses RISC instruction sets, which allows computing with FAR fewer transistors than x86 instruction sets. The WORLD has been locked into x86 because Microsoft's support for other instruction sets has been lacking (they killed Alpha NT, and now they are slow to the mark with the new McKinley 64 bit chips which will STILL support legacy x86 instruction sets). X86 is just inefficient, and that causes CPU power consumption to go up.

The software engineering is critical - they have to take in x86 instruction sets, map them to RISC instructions, and execute them in near real time. This is the CRITICAL aspect of Crusoe. Instead of using an inefficient CPU, use an efficient one and map those inefficient instructions to efficient ones.

Without this remapping it should be possible to run linux on the NEC machines (which, BTW, ship with Windows installed), but it would not be possible to run Windows.

NuCycle Plastic: more info

[L-Train8]

A press release with a lot more details than the product page is here.

From the press release:
In addition, the PowerMate eco is also made of NuCycle(TM) plastic - an NEC patented plastic that is 100% recyclable. NuCycle is made of polycarbonate resin mixed with a special, flame-retardant silicone compound. Other computer plastics have flame retardant brominated coatings applied, which do retard flames, but produce harmful gases in the process. NuCycle's flame retardant is non-toxic and built-in, requiring no toxic coating.

Crusoe is not a desktop processor

[FWMiller]

I've been using a Fujitsu laptop now for about 3 months and I've decided that I will probably not buy another machine with a Crusoe chip in it. The function is fine and the clock speeds are reasonable.

The problem is, it "feels" slow. There's just this little bit of latency, particularly as something starts up for the first time, i.e. as the morphing is doing its bit. The more you are exposed to it the more annoying it becomes.

Its little things like this that are what ruin companies. Transmeta needs to do something about this or they will never make it as a mainstream desktop processor.

Re:George Carlin once said...

[AzrealAO]

He also said that maybe, that's the whole reason we're here. The earth couldn't make plastic on it's own, so it created us to do it. Now that we've created plastic for the earth, we're expendable, and the earth can now move on to the next great stage in it's evolution.

Mobos

[foo fighter]

So when are we gonna get some Crusoe mobos?

I have a couple labs where I'd love to stick some inexpensive, quiet, low-power systems that have decent speed.

I've talked to at least a dozen people with Crusoe laptops and they really like how long the battery lasts, how cool the system runs, and how surprisingly quick it is.

I want that on the desktop, damnit.