IEEE Wants to Make Ethernet Cards More Energy Efficient

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) wants to make idle or underutilized Ethernet connections in computers more energy efficient, by switching between 10Mbps, 100Mbps and 1000Mbps LAN data transfer speeds on the fly, Network World reports.

“IEEE recently formed an Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE) study group to explore how to do this. The idea is to save power in PCs and laptops (most of which ship with Gigabit Ethernet LAN cards now) when LAN links are idle, or not utilizing full bandwidth”, according to the Network World.

For instance, a laptop with Gigabit Ethernet card would switch to 10Mbps when idle, 100Mbps during Web browsing and e-mail checking, and burst to 1000Mbps when downloading large files or streaming video.

This technology could save notebook’s battery life, but researchers also estimate that U.S. companies could collectively save $450 million a year in power costs by using such a technology.

It is reported that discussions about how EEE technology will operate are in the early stages.

Network World