“These Recovery Act projects will improve the efficiency of a strong and growing sector of the American economy. By reducing energy use and energy costs for the IT and telecommunications industries, this funding will help create jobs and ensure the sector remains competitive,” said DOE Secretary Steven Chu during the announcement of the awards last week. “The expected growth of these industries means that new technologies adopted today will yield benefits for many years to come.”

 

Computer servers in the United States consume more than 50 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity per year. Achieving just a 10 percent energy efficiency gain in processors results in an energy savings of 1.9 billion kilowatt-hours in volume servers. “According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s estimates, this amounts to over 1.3 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emission," says Shepard.

 

Shepard, along with William E. Bailey, associate professor of Materials Science & Engineering, and Ioannis Kymissis, assistant professor of electrical engineering, will build a power converter small enough to sit atop a silicon chip. Most servers and computers have a single converter that sits off the chip on the main circuit board. The converters lower the voltage of the incoming electric current to a level required by modern processor chips, usually less than 1 volt. The advantage of having a converter right on the chip is that less electricity will be lost in the transfer process. “You want to bring power into the chip at a higher voltage and step it down just before you need it,” said Shepard.

 

The power converter developed by the Columbia/Cornell/IBM team will make use of magnetic materials, which allow for high density, efficient, on-chip energy storage.

 

A leading academic and research university, Columbia University continually seeks to advance the frontiers of knowledge and to foster a campus community deeply engaged in understanding and addressing the complex global issues of our time. Columbia’s extensive public service initiatives, cultural collaborations, and community partnerships help define the University’s underlying values and mission to educate students to be both leading scholars and informed, engaged citizens. Founded in 1754 as King’s College, Columbia University in the City of New York is the fifth oldest institution of higher learning in the United States.