Tokyo and London, November 26, 2007- NEC Corporation announced its "REAL IT COOL
PROJECT", a series of programs and activities for the development and
provision of technology, products and services that will reduce the
power consumption of customer IT platforms. By promoting the newly
formulated REAL IT COOL PROJECT, NEC aims to cut the power consumption
of customer IT platforms by 50% year on year to achieve a cumulative
reduction in CO2 emissions from IT devices of approximately 910,000
tons(1) by the year 2012.
The REAL IT COOL PROJECT covers three focus areas: (1) Energy-Saving
Platforms, such as power-efficient server storage; (2) Energy-Saving
Control Software that reduces power consumption by controlling the
efficiency of energy-saving functions in IT devices; and an (3) Energy
-Saving Facilities Service Package that streamlines the power
consumption of air-conditioning and power supply units in such
facilities as datacenters and machine rooms.
To embody the energy-saving technology mapped out in the REAL IT COOL
PROJECT, NEC is currently developing the new "ECO CENTER" (development
code name) server. Slated for market release by the end of March,
2008, the ECO CENTER will not only reduce the number of components
contained in a device through optimum packaging design, but also
achieve power savings of up to 60% on conventional servers(2) by
adopting the latest energy-saving technology, including
semiconductor disks and highly efficient power supplies.
The REAL COOL IT PROJECT is designed to help lighten the environmental
footprint of NEC customers and society as a whole by spurring on the
environmentally conscious initiatives targeted by the "REAL IT
PLATFORM" vision. Unveiled by NEC last year this vision aims to
deliver more flexible, secure and user-friendly IT platforms.
The details of the REAL IT COOL PROJECT are outlined below.
1.Energy-Saving Platforms
Energy savings are achieved in server storage and other hardware by
incorporating virtual infrastructure and adopting energy-saving
components, such as CPU, memory and disk units.
(1)ECO CENTER
NEC's new energy-saving server, ECO CENTER, contains 500 cores in a 2-
meter high, 19-inch rack mounted system that takes up no more than 75%
the space of conventional servers. The ECO CENTER also reduces the
power consumption of each core by up to 60% and weighs up to 60% less.
In the future NEC plans to offer an ECO CENTER model suitable for
power supply environments of less than 6 kilowatts per single block,
as is the case in many domestic datacenters.
(2)In-house Technology for Energy-Saving Platforms
The REAL IT COOL PROJECT will roll out a series of products enhanced
with new in-house technologies acquired during the development of
super computers and mainframes. These will include new generation
liquid cooling technology with two times the cooling performance of
existing units achieved by adopting semiconductor disks and a
packaging design that combines high performance with energy-saving
benefits. Also being developed are highly efficient power supplies
with a power conversion rate of an amazing 92% and high-voltage
direct current supplies with over 300 volts of power. While integral
to the new ECO CENTER server, NEC intends to use these new
technologies to enhance energy-saving arrangements in all of its IT
platform products, including the NX7700i enterprise server series,
SIGMABLADE blade system, Express 5800 IA server series and the
iStorage series.
2.Energy-Saving Control Software
Lower power consumption will be realized by the addition of
functions to operational management software. These functions will
enable IT devices in datacenters and machine rooms to autonomously
reduce the power consumed by regulating the efficiency of
energy-saving functions in server storage. Specifically, the project
aims to deliver a series of functions using the platform management
software,WebSAM SigmaSystemCenter, as well as the integration
management software, WebSAM MCOperations. These energy-saving
functions will <1> limit maximum power consumption according to the
operational characteristics of the system; <2> more efficiently
consolidate virtual machines, such as VMware (R) Infrastructure 3(3),
according to operational load, and cut power to redundant servers; and
<3> equalize heat and improve cooling effectiveness by identifying
hotspots (heat sources)in devices and better allocating tasks.
3.Energy-Saving Facilities Service Package
A facilities design and construction service package will be offered
to realize energy-saving assets. This service package (to be provided
by NEC Fielding) will cover all aspects of power reduction, from
initial analysis of datacenter and machine room environments, to
design, construction and operation of facilities.
NEC plans to improve and expand the services offered by the package
over time.
A heat simulation service, which will use computers to simulate the
heat generated by machine rooms and use this information to design and
propose the optimum layout for IT devices and air-conditioning units,
will be joined by a energy-saving monitoring and operations service
that will propose the allocation of operational loads and recommend
improved layouts for air-conditioners and IT devices. A series of
other services will also be rollout to enhance the package benefits.
Since the Kyoto Protocol came into effect in 2005, corporate and local
government initiatives to tackle the issue of global warming have
attracted considerable attention. The growing possibility that
reductions in CO2 emissions will be treated as management benchmarks
by corporations and government bodies from next year is one such
initiative raising public interest in environmentally conscious
activities. At the same time, however, the progress of technology is
promoting annual increases in the level of power used by IT devices as
more advanced functions are added. As such there is a growing need
in the marker for energy-saving measures to be applied to IT platforms.
The newly formulated REAL IT COOL PROJECT will attempt to meet the
environmental and energy-saving needs of these IT platforms. NEC aims
to promote the REAL IT COOL PROJECT to cut the power used by customer
IT platforms by 50% year on year to realize a cumulative reduction in
CO2 emissions from IT devices of approximately 910,000 tons by 2012.
NEC will continue to enhance its products and services under the REAL
IT PLATFORM vision to achieve a more flexible, secure and user
friendly IT environment.
(1)CO2 emissions based on the assumption that NEC will increase the
number of IT devices it ships at the growth rate predicted by the IDC
for year 2006 - 2012, and assuming the shipped units will operate in
customer environments for 5 years.
(2)Existing servers refer to NEC rack servers incorporating dual core
IA servers.
(3)VMware (R) is a trademark or registered trademark of VMware, Inc in
the United States of America and all other regions of the world.
The brand and product names appearing in this press release are the
trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.
About NEC Corporation
NEC Corporation (NASDAQ: NIPNY) is one of the world's
leading providers of Internet, broadband network and enterprise
business solutions dedicated to meeting the specialized needs of its
diverse and global base of customers. NEC delivers tailored solutions
in the key fields of computer, networking and electron devices, by
integrating its technical strengths in IT and Networks, and by
providing advanced semiconductor solutions through NEC Electronics
Corporation. The NEC Group employs more than 150,000 people worldwide.
For additional information, please visit the NEC home page at: http://www.nec.com