Push for more energy-efficient Ethernet standard continues forward march

The push to encourage "Energy Efficient Ethernet" moved forward over the past three weeks when the working group concentrating on the emerging standard agreed to put the existing proposal to vote.

Here's an article summarizing that action, from a meeting in mid-July. If all continues along the current schedule, an extension to the existing IEEE Std 802.3 Ethernet standard to accommodate lower power consumption should be in place by September 2010. The nitty-gritty of what the group is working on is reflected at this site.

This blog does a great job of summarizing what's at stake, which is really pretty basic: Figure out ways that Ethernet can be more energy-conscious at times when the network is idle.