Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!rice!sun-spots-request
From: "Bruce_Hamilton.OsbuSouth"@xerox.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun
Subject: Re: Screens: to shut off or not to
Message-ID: <890118-115209-2827@Xerox>
Date: 25 Jan 89 00:10:44 GMT
Sender: usenet@rice.edu
Organization: Sun-Spots
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Approved: Sun-Spots@rice.edu
Original-Date: 17 Jan 89 21:29:53 PST (Tuesday)
X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 7, Issue 118, message 1 of 11

I'd like to share some knowledge and ask if anyone has done cost studies
on powering down entire Sun processors (not just the displays).

I can't speak to the various models of Sun, but at Xerox a couple of years
ago, we did some cost studies and controlled experiments in powering off
our own Xerox model 8010 and 6085 workstations.  We discovered

-yes, there is SOME "infant mortality" at the board level when you start
cycling power each day on machines which used to stay on all the time

-however, the total savings in power is HUGE.  A buck a night power saved
per workstation times an installed base of about 20K workstations gets
into the megabucks REAL FAST.

Conclusion: except for the very oldest model 8010's with a separate disk
box, which tends to throw a drive belt on power-up, we recommend powering
down everything except public server machines each night.

I'd be surprised if the conclusions were much different for Sun machines,
since to a first approximation, electronics is electronics (power usage
vs.  MTBF under various conditions of cycling power).

--Bruce
CSNet: Hamilton.osbuSouth@Xerox.COM
UUCP: xerox.com!hamilton.osbuSouth
213/333-8075