论文标题
可持续计算 - 没有热空气
Sustainable Computing -- Without the Hot Air
论文作者
论文摘要
对计算的需求持续成倍增长。这种增长将转化为计算能源消耗的指数增长,除非其能源效率的提高可以超过其需求增加。然而,经过数十年的研究,由于已经进行了高度优化,进一步提高能源效率变得越来越具有挑战性。结果,在某个时候,计算需求的增加可能会超过其能源效率的增加,这可能会大大增加。这种指数增长(如果不受组织)将计算将计算定位为全球碳排放量的重要贡献者。尽管著名的技术公司已经意识到了这个问题,并试图减少其碳排放,但可以理解的是,他们专注于他们的成功,这有可能无意中传达出一种错误的印象,即现在或很快就会是解决问题的问题。如果这种错误的印象有助于阻止在这一领域进行进一步研究,因为当我们讨论时,消除计算机和更普遍的社会,碳排放远非解决问题。为了更好地了解问题的范围,本文提炼了决定计算的碳足迹及其对实现可持续计算的影响的基本趋势。
The demand for computing is continuing to grow exponentially. This growth will translate to exponential growth in computing's energy consumption unless improvements in its energy-efficiency can outpace increases in its demand. Yet, after decades of research, further improving energy-efficiency is becoming increasingly challenging, as it is already highly optimized. As a result, at some point, increases in computing demand are likely to outpace increases in its energy-efficiency, potentially by a wide margin. Such exponential growth, if left unchecked, will position computing as a substantial contributor to global carbon emissions. While prominent technology companies have recognized the problem and sought to reduce their carbon emissions, they understandably focus on their successes, which has the potential to inadvertently convey the false impression that this is now, or will soon be, a solved problem. Such false impressions can be counterproductive if they serve to discourage further research in this area, since, as we discuss, eliminating computing's, and more generally society's, carbon emissions is far from a solved problem. To better understand the problem's scope, this paper distills the fundamental trends that determine computing's carbon footprint and their implications for achieving sustainable computing.