Techies and the love of all things green make uncomfortable but not uncommon bedfellows. Phil Manchester asks the question Is ‘green’ software possible? (Reg Developer) and finds that Microsoft isn’t too bad.
Fortunately, there’s some hope in the future for IT development and enviromental responsibility to coexist:
Two topical trends in software development could also make software production greener. One is open source software, now widely supported by the green lobby. Open source tends to use less resources and - because of the collaborative development process - to be more efficient.
More efficient, ‘greener’ coding strategies could, ironically, also come from developments in high performance computing. The requirement to devise smarter software to exploit parallel, multiprocessor architectures will inevitably mean more efficient use of hardware resources and better coding techniques all round. It could even mark a return to the obsessions of an earlier age of software development when resources were scarce - when, indeed, hardware was big, energy inefficient and expensive.
Meanwhile AMD servers beat Intel’s in a recent test (via Slashdot).