GreenHive - the latest offering from craftily-named eco-friendly computer company VeryPC - is reckoned to offer huge energy-savings to organisations of all sizes, from SMEs to PLCs.
According to the Sheffield-based outfit, GreenHive reduces the electricity consumption per user to a mere 9W - excluding screen and peripherals.
That, it claims, compares very favourably with the consumption of an ordinary PC – not typically less than 100W, it says, and often a great deal more.
The magical energy-saving trick is said to be achieved by sharing a single processing unit among up to seven users - without going the thin-client route. As a result, no special terminal servers are said to be needed – GreenHive simply plugs straight into an existing network. The CPU within is an unnamed dual-core 2.3GHz AMD jobbie - quad-cores are also available on higher-end packages.
In contrast with what you might think, a move to GreenHive doesn't leave users hamstrung for power, at least, according to VeryPC. The company claims that users enjoy comparable computing performance to those who work on dedicated PCs.
How is that possible? Well, VeryPC says that a typical multi-core office PC only uses on average around five per cent of its processing resources and so there's plenty to be shared around.
For large organisations, the claimed savings on electricity look to be massive. The company instances calculations for a call centre with 560 PCs [is that a big or small call-centre? I think we should be told - Ed], where it says a switch to GreenHive could cut the electricity bill by something like £85,000 a year!
Highlighting the contrast with a medium-sized server in a data centre, VeryPC claims that GreenHive has a similar operational footprint to a light bulb, while the server has a carbon footprint equivalent to a car with fuel consumption of 15mpg!
In addition, the company points out that fewer boxes equates to wider eco savings, by cutting down on the energy used in manufacturing and distribution.
But what's the bottom line?
The price (ex-VAT, of course) for a basic GreenHive box supporting seven users is a mere £1,500.
All-in packages are available, too. As an example, a seven-user package - with 19in flat-panel monitors, keyboards, meeses and a shared multi-function colour laser printer - is quoted at £3,300. Although that also doesn't include VAT, it does buy a three-year next-day swap-out warranty and a three-year subscription to the Carbonite online backup system.
Sound interesting? Well, check out the VeryPC's site and the GreenHive press release.
Detailed product info is available from this PDF but wait until March 10 before downloading it - the current file looks to us to be inaccurate in some regards.
