Xtreme PC EX Power Savings Issues and Settings
Procedure
Application Note AN-115 - Xtreme PC EX Power Savings Issues and Settings
- General – This document describes the different issues regarding the reduction of power consumption using Xtreme PC EX products. It provides the recommended settings as well as operation practice.
- Xtreme PC Power Modes
The Xtreme PC EX products break the world record in desktop power consumption! It takes only about 4W in full power! Compared to other thin-clients that consume 30W or PCs that consumes 150W, it offers significant energy cost savings.
The Xtreme PC EX has several operating modes:
| Mode | LED | Average power | Monitor Power Detection |
| Standby | Red | 0.5-1W | OFF (No sync.) – Energy Star |
| Normal mode | Green | 4W | ON |
| Turn off monitor wait | Green | 2W | OFF (No sync.) – Energy Star |
| Normal mode – after 30 minute idle | Green | 1W | ON |
Table 1 – EX Power states
The Xtreme PC EX products has several operational modes. The features of each mde described here:
1. Standby – The device will enter this state immediately after boot or if the power key is pressed momentarily during normal operation. In this state the device can still be seen using Xcalibur and it is possible to wake it up remotely or locally in less than 2 seconds. Chip PC recommends that users will not use this power mode manually (only automatic software power saving modes will be used).
2. Normal – device is fully operational. Still ports and functions that are not used are powered down (for example unused USB ports, Audio, serial ports etc..)
3. Turn off monitor – this is a mode activated by software timer that can be set by the user / administrator in Display setting tab. After the defined wait time in idle reached, the monitor is put to sleep and also some other modules in the device. Any mouse movement or keyboard touch will cause the device to enter normal mode within 2 seconds.
4. Normal mode after 30 minutes of idle – the device enter a power saving mode that reduces power to 1W. Any keyboard or mouse activity will return the device to normal mode within 0.5 second. There are no user settings for this mode – it is active automatically.
- Operational Recommendations
The following paragraphs provide some general guidelines about power savings using Xtreme PC products:
It is highly recommended that power management will rely on software functions and not on user actions. Therefore users should be instructed never to switch off the Xtreme PC in any case!
Switching to standby or OFF the Xtreme PC or the display will not save any energy – it will just reduce the products life.
- Set display timer to show screen saver after 10 minutes. Keep in mind that screen saver consumes normal (or even maximum) power and also cause the display to consume full power.
- Set the Turn off monitor wait period to 30 minutes. Make sure that the monitor is set to turn off or standby if no signal provided.
- Never allow any server based screen saver to be displayed. It will burn energy for nothing and kill both server and bandwidth for no good reason!
- Disconnect any USB devices that are not being used for long time.
- Always prefer to deploy LCD monitors if possible as CRTs consumes x3 to x5 power compared to equivalent size LCD. Also many older CRT monitors do not support power saving modes (they would not turn to standby when video signal is off).
- When operating LCD monitors always set refresh rate to the lowest value possible.
- Referenced Documents
- See Chip PC Energy Savings model, Rev C for detailed energy savings calculations.
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