Irvine, California-based Broadcom Corporation, a leading semiconductor company in the wireless and broadband communications sector, announced on April 21 that it has joined GreenTouch—a global industry consortium dedicated to inventing radical new technologies that will be at the heart of sustainable networks in the decades to come.
This brings the number of members in the GreenTouch group to 43—among them: AT&T (News 
- Alert), Athens Information Technology (AIT) Center for Research & Education, Bell Labs, Carnegie Mellon University, Chunghwa Telecom, Columbia University, France Telecom Orange, Freescale Semiconductor, Fujitsu (News - Alert) , King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. (NTT, ) Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT), Swisscom, University of Cambridge, University of Melbourne’s Institute for a Broadband-Enabled Society (IBES), and University of Toronto.
“Broadcom (News - Alert) is a highly respected and recognized leader in providing energy efficient solutions that reduce power and costs in the network. We believe Broadcom will make a significant contribution to the consortium in reaching its ambitious goals; while its customers, the industry, and the environment as a whole will benefit greatly from Broadcom’s collaboration and innovation,” stated Gee Rittenhouse, GreenTouch Consortium chairman, and vice president of research at Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs (News - Alert).
The GreenTouch collaboration “underscores [our] … continued commitment to driving radical changes in eco enterprise Ethernet computing,” according to Broadcom’s official statement. The company notes that it already “provides the industry's broadest portfolio of energy efficient Ethernet devices, going beyond the standard to enable additional power savings of up to 70 percent or more.”
The company’s goal, in its new collaboration with GreenTouch members, is to create the technology that will support even more energy efficient enterprise Ethernet networks. GreenTouch aims to demonstrate the key components needed to increase network efficiency from current levels by a factor of 1,000 by 2015.
“Broadcom is a leader in the innovation and delivery of energy efficient Ethernet solutions that enable our customers to reduce their carbon footprint and costs while delivering the high performance and functionality needed for the increasing bandwidth demands of cloud computing, virtualization, mobile computing, and next generation networks” commented Nick Ilyadis, vice president and CTO of Broadcom Infrastructure & Networking Group, further noting, “Our mutual goals are perfectly aligned and the collaborative environment of global technology, research, and academia that GreenTouch provides offers an exciting opportunity for progress.”
Broadcom is already a member of several organizations focused on green IT and network technologies, including the IEEE, Green Grid and the Climate Savers Computing Initiative. Broadcom was recognized in Fortune Magazine’s 2011 “World’s Most Admired Companies” survey as the innovation leader in the semiconductor category.
Cheryl Kaften is an accomplished communicator who has written for consumer and corporate audiences. She has worked extensively for MasterCard (News - Alert) Worldwide, Philip Morris USA (Altria), and KPMG, and has consulted for Estee Lauder and the Philadelphia Inquirer Newspapers. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by
Jennifer Russell
