Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.tivo (
More info?)
Major power consumption is not in a disk drive that
consumes single digit watts. Power consumption is the
electronics and processor that consume on the order of 100+
watts. And in the power supply that can be as low as 65%
efficient.
Replace the magnetic head disk drive with flash memory, or
with newer technologies such as ferroelectric RAM (FeRAM) (see
www.ramtron.com), magnetic RAM (MRAM), ovanic unifed memory
(OUM) (see www.intel.com), or the optical disk drive (due out
this next year from IBM and others). All eliminate the
constantly moving parts of a drive. And yet still the big
energy consumer remains on motherboard and inside the power
supply.
Energy reduction is an admirable objective. Especially
desirable in a niche market (see next paragraph). But the
constantly moving disk drive is not the major consumer of that
energy. Eliminating the disk drive does not solve an energy
consumption problem.
Powering Tivo constantly is not problematic to those on the
grid. However it remains a problem for those dependent on
non-traditional energy sources. Anything that depends on a
constant energy source causes greater energy consumption and
losses when power is from a local generator, wind, or solar
power. A Tivo that could eliminate a need for constant
external power would be an asset to this market. However the
market is not very large. The hardware redesign would be
significant and expensive.
"Randy S." wrote:
> Well, to be fair, it's not completely an invalid point (though the thing
> about Tivo contacting us seems a bit paranoic). Saving energy is an
> enviable goal, and it's not impossible that Tivo's duty cycle could be
> made a bit more energy efficient. For example, say that instead of
> storing the continuous 30 minute buffer on the HDD, the DVR stored in
> instead on flash memory, and then powered down the drive when not
> actively recording an entire program?
>
> The amt of flash memory required would be cost prohibitive right now,
> but eventually it might make sense.
>
> Randy S.