Digital Power Unleashed

Easier Green Plug Implementation Options

Green Plug-enabled smart power adapters communicate with compatible electronic products so that all of them are able to power any device, regardless of voltage needs.  Our Greentalk^TM power protocol and Greenwire^TM multi-function physical layer let power supplies dynamically adapt to use patterns, saving energy.  The technology also reduces solid waste by allowing consumers to keep these smart power adapters and battery chargers for use with future products long after their current products have become obsolete.

What's New

Part of our technology (the Green Load Processor – GLP) exists on the product side and is licensed free of charge to strategic adopters.  The GLP offers a wide range of implementation choices that can be done for little or even no added BOM cost as a compilable macro for an existing chip in the product. 

Imagination Technologies, a leading provider of System-on-Chip (SoC) intellectual property (IP), is the first manufacturer to make Greentalk and Greenwire available in its core products.  That means any vendor that uses chips based upon the Imagination SoC can easily turn on the Green Plug functionality in its products without adding any parts or cost..  Green Plug makes money by selling a Green Power Processor (GPP) chip that provides power supply control and communication.  Vendors will sell smart power adapters using the GPP as a paid-for option to customers wanting to have a more functional, eco-friendly power solution for their electronic products.  Consumers will have the choice of getting the conventional power adapter at no charge or paying a premium for a better power adapter or smart power hub.

Green Plug is talking with several popular chip companies that make chips that go inside many electronic products about incorporating the free product-side IP into their chips.  This will give vendors even more choices for turning on the Green Plug functionality without adding new components or increasing BOM costs.

 

On Helping Raise Awareness for Universal Power

The responses to our thoughts on GSMA's recent news, and on bringing the world closer to a universal power standard, have been outstanding. Two recent examples are Gadgetell's post written by Heather Wood, and The Industry Standard's writeup, by Lincoln Spector. Thanks to them, and to the many others who are helping bring this issue to the forefront. 

In order to address some of the questions that have surfaced, I present my thoughts (originally pulished as a comment on the previously-mentioned Gadgetell post):

While the GSMA is standardizing both the power adapter connector and the cell phone device connector, Green Plug has taken an approach similar to what China mandated as law.

To sell a cell phone in China, that phone must get power from a power adapter that has a USB-A connector.  So phones can use whatever connector they want and still be able to interoperate with any standard USB power adapter.  All that needs to be device-specific is the power cord.

When you consider the vast number of device types, shapes and sizes (Bluetooth headsets, notebook PCs, digital picture frames, portable game controllers, etc.) we agree that it can take a while to standardize on the device connector.  That’s why Green Plug does not mandate a universal device connector, but does require the power adapter to use its innovative power adapter connector.

It’s innovative, because we license it free of charge and it accepts any standard USB-A plug. It also has extra power pins to enable it to power devices up to 180W each with a single power port - many times more power than USB provides for.

The Alliance for Universal Power Supplies will encourage the development of a universal device power connector. But, as you point out, that may take a while.  Getting the world to standardize on a reusable, convenient and interoperable power connector on the power adapter side, however, should not be difficult. That is why China took their approach, and Green Plug also focused on standardizing the power adapter side first.

Thank you again for helping make the world aware of how important it is to eliminate the unnecessary disposal of power adapters that are in perfect working condition, simply because they are incompatible with other products. This costs manufacturers money, consumers hate it, and it is bad for the environment.  

The change is simple.

Our thanks also go out to all of you, like MacsiumusNews,  The greeen frog from silicon valley,  and ZDNet's Heather Clancy who are helping to spread the word about I Want My Green Plug. Every vote counts.

Passionate About Universal Power? Yes, We Are

And it seems we're not alone. Thanks to Slashdot we've received over 2,000 new votes on I Want My Green Plug in under 24 hours, and hundreds of new supportive comments.  Some excellent points have been raised in the Slashdot comments, and we hope to address many of them, here, since due to a technical glitch we were unable to post on Slashdot.

On USB As a Universal Standard

USB is indeed a universal standard. It does not require voltage negotiation, since the voltage level is fixed at 5V. By default, Green Plug-enabled power hubs provide power to USB-powered devices. Green Plug also enables any load (electronic product) to safely accept power from any power source. 

E-Waste Can Be Drastically Reduced

Why is it that each electronic product must include a device-specific power adapter, resulting in billions of them being discarded as e-waste? It's because they all require unique voltages and have different maximum current levels. Ideally, homes and offices would have multi-port power hubs that dynamically adjust to the needs of electronic products connected to them. This would eliminate the need for product vendors to have to produce disposable, device-specific power adapters for each product shipped. 

Green Plug's Method 

There are several power adapters today that configure output voltage to the exact voltage needed by connected devices. Green Plug's method is unique in that the power negotiation is based upon digital communication. Not only can initial voltages be matched to connected devices, but smart power hubs can dynamically react to changing conditions. New monitoring and control applications are possible when there's two way communication between powered devices and their power sources. Green Plug's interactive communication model enables standby power shutoff and dynamic reconfiguration of output power based upon changing state of powered devices. 

Greentalk: Will It Become a Standard?

Someday, Green Plug's Greentalk protocol may become a standard. A non-profit industry consortium, the Alliance for Universal Power Supplies  has been set up to bring manufacturers and other stakeholders together to drive, develop and promote standards for the power supply and electronics products industry. Green Plug has only just begun working with major CE device manufacturers that all recognize that the existing one-to-one power model is broken. It costs manufacturers a lot of money to include power adapters in their products; consumers hate them (who doesn't have a drawer full?); and they are normally thrown away when they are in perfect working order. That's not sustainable and there is a better way. 

Our Progress

Green Plug is making terrific progress in its discussions with the most popular vendors. Decisions that affect hundreds of millions or billions of product units are not made quickly. Our first customer demonstrated an award-winning power adapter at CES, where we showcased several concept systems at CES that showed interoperable power. We've also begun working with influential organizations that see the potential for the new open systems power model. 

Licensing Process

Greentalk is licensed free of charge to qualified manufacturers of load devices (electronic products that consume power.) On the load device, Greentalk can run in an existing processor and in some cases can be implemented for no added cost. Even in devices that require hardware modifications to run Greentalk, the cost of implementing it in the load is a tiny fraction of the cost of an external power adapter. Even legacy devices can get power from a Green Plug-enabled power hub through a smart cable. If we could get beyond the chicken-and-egg scenario and imagine that smart power hubs are ubiquitous, product vendors could eliminate the cost of building, packaging and shipping external power adapters with their products. Everyone wins. 

What's Ahead

You can expect to see some announcements this year of major electronic product vendors incorporating the free Greentalk protocol into their products. We hope you will continue to support our mission by voting to encourage more manufacturers to adopt this technology. 

As always, we thank you for your ongoing support.

Actor, Green Advocate, and Green Plug Supporter Christopher Knight @ CES

Christopher Knight, aka Peter Brady, co-host of VH-1's reality Show, My Fair Brady, and host of Fox TV's game show, Trivial Pursuit, has been a longtime friend and business partner of Green Plug CEO and Founder, Frank Paniauga, Jr.

Last month, Christopher joined the Green Plug team at the famed (and very packed) Lunch@Piero's daytime press event at CES:

It's no exaggeration to say we have at least 25 wall warts to [each of] us. That's a combination of what we take portably, and that which is plugged in at home.

He went on to point out some of the devices that he owns, which require separate power supplies: speakers on a desktop, a printer, his razor, a coffee maker, his toothbrush and more -- and the fact that the Brady family (Alice included) would have had 225 wall warts in total. That's a lot of waste.

As Treehugger's Jaymi Heimbuch explains:

The main issue Green Plug is addressing is not really vampire power – it's e-waste. One of the primary drives for Green Plug's team is to cut out the incredible amount of materials and waste that occur with unnecessary chargers that are stuck in a drawer or thrown in a trash can when the device is no longer used.

Jaymi continued:

The passion of the team was apparent when I spoke with them while testing out the new Innergie product, and one of the neatest moves they're making is getting consumers involved. If you're sick of toting around wads of chargers when you travel, or having too many things plugged into a wall, you can go to IwantMyGreenPlug.com and let manufacturers know that there's a demand for this technology.

To have a firsthand look at how this works, take a look at this 3 minute video of Green Plug CEO Frank Paniagua, and Christopher Knight demonstrating Green Plug's Greentalk-enabled technology with the Innergie mCube:

*disclosure: Christopher Knight is also an investor in Green Plug

Green Plug and Innergie

If the theme of 2009 is hope, rejuvenation, and new beginnings, then Green Plug is definitely right on track.

Just prior to the new year, we announced a new partnership with Innergie - developers of the world's smallest universal power adapter - and the introduction of the first implementation of the Green Plug protocol: the Greentalk-enabled Innergie mCube90 (pictured).

Green Plug's Greentalk open system universal power interface enables any consumer electronics product to obtain power from any compliant external power adapter.

As GigaOm's earth2tech illustrates "The new adapter is green in two ways: it cuts phantom power usage because it matches each gadgets’ power needs, and because it works with a variety of consumer electronics, it allows manufacturers to skip making the bulky adapters that are sold alongside most consumer electronics.

Further at this week’s CES in Las Vegas, Green Plug showed off how to use its power adapter with a range of consumer electronics — from 5V cordless telephones to 19V flat panels — that would normally require numerous adapters and power cords to let them do their thing. A four-plug version is also in the works, which should cover the Best Buy of gadgets we roll with these days. "

The reality of a universal power adapter seemed to excite quite a few people - and we're certainly included on that list.

As always, we encourage you to let your voice be heard, and to take action by clicking to vote for universal power supplies - with all consumer electronic devices. It takes only seconds - just go to I Want My Green Plug.

Thank you!

'I Want My Green Plug' Launches

Today, we're extremely excited to announce the launch of an online, grassroots effort called I Want My Green Plug. 

And, we're putting the future of how consumer electronics are powered in your hands.

Without the voice of the consumer -- without your voice -- consumer electronic companies won't be motivated to change the current standard of external power supplies. And as we've mentioned before, it's not only madness to have to use a different power adapter for all of your electronics -- it is also extraordinarily wasteful.

So. Here's how you can make a difference.

By submitting your vote on iwantmygreenplug.com, you're sending a powerful, positive message to the consumer electronics industry. You're voting for an end to power cord chaos, and for open standards that eliminate the need for multiple power adapters for consumer electronics. At the same time, you're voting against waste, and taking concrete action to help the environment.

If this is important to you, if you own multiple electronic devices (like a laptop, cell phone, iPod, printer, router)and care about the future of our planet, then please take 3 minutes and vote. Then go tell 10 friends.

Without you, this change won't happen.

We sincerely thank you, and will keep you updated on the progress.

The Power Model is Broken! And We Need To Fix It.

For years, I've wanted a better solution to having to carry four or five power adapters and battery chargers with me when I travel. And, to the cluttered tangle of black bricks and power cords in my home office.

My personal breaking point was over two years ago, when my wife and I traveled to a good friend’s wedding in Chicago. We found ourselves having to repack our bags to accommodate the nine chargers we needed to bring with us.  When we arrived at the hotel, I was forced to start moving beds and coffee tables in our room just to find places to plug everything in. Even then, there weren’t enough outlets.

I remember thinking to myself: “This is crazy! We do not have to do this. The power model is broken. And we have to fix it.”

In addition to the terrible inconvenience in our lives, that unsightly tangle of wires, black bricks and wall warts which supply power to your laptop, printer, cordless phone, cell phone, toys, cordless power tools, and so many other electronic products, typifies a problem that plagues consumer society. Multiply what's at your feet by millions: a staggering 379 million discarded and obsolete external power supplies are destined to end up in U.S. landfills this year alone.

Our planet needs a single, universal power architecture for electronic devices. Such a standard could prevent hundreds of millions of power supplies every year from being tossed into landfills - maximizing resources, minimizing solid waste, and conserving energy.

This was the genesis for starting Green Plug.

The way our technology works is pretty straightforward: Green Plug provides the enabling technology that makes any electronic product capable of getting power from any power supply. We sell chips to manufacturers that allow them to make intelligent multiport chargers that can provide a wide range of power from cell phones to laptops. At the same time we supply, for free, software that goes on the product for the client side. This way, the chip recognizes that device and says, "Hi! You're a Blackberry: you need 5 volts." And gives it to it. When the device no longer needs power, the power supply shuts off, saving energy.

In addition to providing information, and sharing our knowledge and experiences, we started this blog to start a conversation. We want you - people like us who are sick and tired of the inconvenience of having multiple external power supplies, and who have great concern about the future of our planet - to voice their desire for manufacturers to Green Plug-enable their consumer electronic devices.   

We have some exciting plans in motion to allow you to voice your opinion, and help us send a positive, yet strong message to consumer electronic manufacturers. This will soon be unfolded, but for now I'll hand over the reigns to Seth Socolow, our Vice President of Corporate Marketing. Seth is passionate about leveraging the power of the web to fix this broken power model for electronic devices, and will be the main voice for this blog.

Thank you for listening, and I look forward to achieving the goal of One Plug, One Planet - together.

Frank Paniagua, Jr. is CEO and founder of Green Plug. His bio may be found here.