Considering fabrication in sustainable computing

The term green computing has become effectively synonymous with low-power/energy computing. However, for computing to be truly sustainable, all phases of the system life-cycle must be considered. In contrast to the considerable effort that has been applied to address the use-phase energy consumption issue - ranging from battery powered embedded systems to data center servers - there is limited awareness or attention to the considerable energy consumption and environmental impacts from semiconductor fabrication. Current research indicates that fabrication is responsible for a significant factor of the energy utilized by these systems throughout their life-cycle. The trends of technology scaling coupled with developing hybrid fabrication solutions for integration of emerging technologies, while beneficial for use-phase power consumption, exacerbate these increasing environmental impacts from fabrication. Thus, design for sustainability is a grand challenge that must be addressed over the next decade.