Industry group aims to tackle energy-efficient software development
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Developers can use the Software Carbon Intensity specification from the Green Software Foundation to ‘easily account for software carbon intensity in their day-to-day work in the same way they consider cost, performance, security, accessibility and other concerns today.’
A number of media mentions around the launch of the newly published Green Software Foundation Software Carbon Intensity specification.
How many processor cycles does an algorithm use? Can it use less and, if so, how will this reduce overall energy usage and greenhouse emissions? ComputerWeekly.com, Cliff Saran.
At a high level, said Lloyd-Jones, the specification is fundamentally based on a set of core principles, such as measuring that the workload usage of a CPU correlates roughly to how much electricity a piece of code uses.
The Green Software Foundation says its focus is ‘reduction, not neutralisation’.
Chris Lloyd-Jones, head of open technologies at Avanade, says the basic idea behind SCI is to “have a score to drive down your carbon footprint,” rather than measuring the total carbon footprint. This enables developers to look for ways to make their code more energy-efficient and take steps to cut the carbon footprint of the software they develop.
Technology giants such as Microsoft, Accenture, GitHub, and Thoughtworks are one of the founding members of new climate-friendly initiatives to drive sustainable software development. Both companies are members of the Green Software Foundation, which has announced initial specifications for measuring carbon within applications.
Chris Lloyd-Jones, Head of Open Technology at Avanade, said the basic idea behind SCI is not to measure total carbon emissions, but to “score to reduce carbon emissions.” It states that. This allows developers to find ways to make their code more energy efficient and take steps to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions of the software they develop.
A specification that describes how to calculate a carbon intensity for software applications.A specification that describes how to calculate a carbon intensity for software applications.