AMD, HP 'wake-up' green PCs

Electronic News, April 3, 1995 by Crista Hardie

SUNNYVALE, CALIF. - Advanced Micro Devices an Hewlett-Packard last week rolled out an Ethernet-based protocol for remotely waking up energy-efficient "green" PCs that AMD plans to implement throughout its PCnet controller line. In addition, the two companies are pushing for the Desktop Management Task Force (DMTF), which supports Intel's new Desktop Management Interface (EN, Feb. 27), to make Magic Packet available as an industry standard.

Magic Packet, initially, implemented in AMD's PCnet-ISA II single-chip Ethernet controller, will enable network administrators to remotely wake up sleeping PCs. Magic Packet is a protocol-independent Ethernet frame sent to a single network node; it is recognized by an Ethernet controller and automatically wakes up the entire PC, the two companies said.

AMD and HP did not reveal what other companies will support Magic Packet in the DMTF. AMD said it plans to add Magic Packet as a standard feature on all of its future PCnet devices, with specific product announcements expected in the second half of this year.

HP said it also plans to support Magic Packet in an upcoming OpenView network and system management application due out later this year. "In 1992, HP was the first among major desktop vendors to include network-ready features in our PCs. We expect to continue that tradition by incorporating Magic Packet as a standard feature in our network-ready PC product line and PC network management solutions later this year," said Jacques A. Clay, general manager of HP's Worldwide Personal Computer Division.

According to the two companies, HP last year approached AMD, a supplier of chipsets to HP since 1992, with the dilemma of having to choose between remotely monitoring a computer network and saving on energy costs by using green PCs. The problem arises when a green PC goes into "sleep" or standby mode. In order to perform file backup or other administrative duties, the network administrator has to physically locate the node to turn on the PC.

The companies said the Magic Packet device allows the wake-up function to be performed using software commands from a central management console.

Since about 90 percent of HP's Vector PC line is green, the conflict of network management versus energy efficiency is of considerable- concern to HP, prompting the company to seek out technology to provide a solution for its corporate customers, an HP spokesperson said.

The concept of green PCs has been around for several years, but gained momentum since the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) began encouraging the use of low-power computers.

The Magic Packet feature comes bundled with AMD's PCnet-ISA II single-chip Ethernet controller, which is available to OEMs at a unit price of $25.75 in 1,000-piece quantities.