EPA Honors AMD With ENERGY STAR Certificate For Innovative Cool'n'Quiet Technology

AMD today announced that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) awarded AMD’s Cool‘n’Quiet technology with an ENERGY STAR Certificate of Recognition for advancing computer energy efficiency. All AMD Athlon 64 desktop processors have the innovative Cool’n’Quiet technology, a system-level feature that lowers the power consumption of a computer whenever maximum performance is not needed. AMD received the certificate on March 15 in conjunction with the 2005 ENERGY STAR Awards Ceremony in Washington, D.C.

The EPA recognized AMD for significantly advancing energy efficiency in desktop PCs. AMD demonstrated to the EPA power savings of up to 35 watts per computer, depending on the application in use, in comparison tests with PCs not supporting AMD’s Cool’n’Quiet technology. By optimizing power consumption, Cool’n’Quiet technology not only works to benefit the environment, but consumers’ energy bills as well.

“The ENERGY STAR award for Cool’n’Quiet technology once again demonstrates the value of AMD’s commitment to developing customer-centric innovations that truly make a difference in people’s lives,” said Marty Seyer, corporate vice president and general manager of the Microprocessor Business Unit, Computation Products Group, AMD. “While demand for faster processors may increase power consumption, heat and noise, power management solutions such as AMD’s Cool’n’Quiet technology allow consumers to make smarter choices, saving money and energy, while contributing to an improved global environment.”

Energy efficiency means delivering the same service or operations with less energy. Its benefits extend to the environment, the consumer’s pocketbook and the value proposition offered to business customers who use many PCs. Energy-efficient computers consume less power, give off less heat, exert less strain on cooling systems and can result in a quieter work environment.

“Innovative processor advancements such as AMD’s Cool’n’Quiet technology significantly improve power management features, making them more reliable, dependable and user-friendly than even just a few years ago,” said Craig Hershberg, product manager for Office Equipment and Consumer Electronics, U.S. EPA. “In AMD’s tests, Cool’n’Quiet showed a significant decrease in power consumption resulting in energy efficiency improvements up to 28 percent, making it an ideal candidate for the ENERGY STAR Certificate of Recognition.”

AMD’s Cool’n’Quiet technology effectively lowers power consumption, enabling a quieter-running system while delivering performance on demand for the ultimate computing experience. Cool’n’Quiet technology improves a computer’s energy efficiency by matching processor utilization to the performance actually required. Because common PC programs such as word processing and reading email only require minimal processor utilization, while cinematic games, complex calculations or data encoding require higher utilization, Cool’n’Quiet technology adjusts accordingly to leverage system energy efficiency. By reducing the frequency and voltage of the microprocessor, Cool’n’Quiet technology enables overall lower system and processor power consumption.

AMD has been a leader in bringing power-management features to businesses and consumers, first with AMD PowerNow!™ technology in our mobile processors and following with Cool’n’Quiet technology in AMD Athlon 64 desktop processors. In addition, AMD recently announced that the enterprise-class AMD Opteron™ processor family will include AMD PowerNow! technology with Optimized Power Management (OPM) in the first half of 2005.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency established ENERGY STAR in 1992 as a voluntary, market-based partnership to reduce air pollution by giving consumers simple energy-efficient choices. Today, with assistance from the U.S. Department of Energy, the ENERGY STAR program offers businesses and consumers energy-efficient solutions to save energy and money, and help protect the environment for future generations. More than 8,000 organizations have become ENERGY STAR partners and are committed to improving the energy efficiency of products, homes and businesses. ENERGY STAR continues to build awareness internationally through its partnerships with the European Community (EU), Japan, Taiwan, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

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