Toshiba unveils green hard drive

Toshiba is rolling out a family of 2.5-inch hard drives that offer consumers and smaller businesses all the storage capacity of 3.5-inch HDDs but with 80% less power consumption and heat dissipation, reports eWeek.

The drives are aimed at such systems as all-in-one desktops and Energy Star-compliant PCs, according to Toshiba officials.

"These new high-capacity 2.5-inch HDDs provide benefits for both notebook and desktop applications," says Maciek Brzeski, vice-president of marketing at Toshiba's Storage Device Division. "Not only do they continue to close the performance gap between notebooks and desktops, they also provide a perfect alternative to 3.5-inch HDDs in desktop and POS [poi applications requiring energy efficiency and reliability in a smaller footprint."

Apple computer users who upgrade to the Snow Leopard operating system can expect to save about 10% in electricity a year, states Environmental Leader.

Considering Apple's annual sales of about 10 million computers, the savings will translate to more than 80 million kWh a year, or nearly $10 million in electricity, calculated against a power systems review of the new operating system from CNET.

On an individual basis, an Apple Macbook Pro 17-inch using the OS X Leopard 10.5.6 system will consume about 85.09 kWh annually, costing about $9.66. By comparison, using the OS X Snow Leopard 10.6 will consume 76.74 kWh annually, costing about $8.71.

Making data centres more energy efficient has been elevated to a college degree, says CNET News.

IBM says it has developed a two-year associate's degree in 'green data centre management', in collaboration with the Metropolitan Community College in Omaha, Nebraska.

Starting in December, students will learn how to design and manage data centres to run efficiently in what IBM says is the first college degree in the subject. Classes will be offered online to remote students as well.