Reduce your Linux PC's power consumption through smart activity monitors

Tony Austin
Tuesday, 11 November 2008 04:41

Science - Energy

Today, for those of you who use Linux desktop or notebook PCs, I would like to draw your attention to a new IBM developerWorks article: Reduce your PC's power consumption through smart activity monitors.

Any PC manufactured after 2000 should provide hardware and software capable of reducing power consumption.

Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) and the power configuration systems built into modern computers provide a wide range of options for reducing overall power consumption.

Linux and its associated user space programs have many of the tools necessary to master your PC power consumption in a variety of contexts.

"Much of the current documentation focuses on modifying your kernel parameters and hdparm settings to reduce unnecessary disk activity. In addition, extensive documentation is available for changing your processor settings to maximize the benefits of dynamic frequency scaling based on your current power source."

This article provides code and links to tools for building on these power-saving measures by monitoring your application-usage patterns.

You can use the techniques presented in the article to change your power settings based on the application in focus, user activity, and general system performance.

You'll need a modern Linux kernel, and it helps to have a Linux distribution with many of the power-saving tools built in.

However, simply blanking a screen or triggering an automatic shutdown can provide substantial power-consumption benefits.

Older hardware or those without ACPI capability, the article says, should still find the code presented here useful.

So here's a chance for Linux users to go a bit greener, courtesy of some free guidance from IBM developerWorks.