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ENERGY STAR 4.0 Certification

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Updated
14 Oct 2024
Form Number
LP1879
PDF size
8 pages, 74 KB

Abstract

When consumers and businesses use energy-efficient products, they save on electricity which contributes to lower CO2 emissions and less of an impact on the environment. Consequently, we recommend our customers choose Energy Star certified products.

This paper provides a brief description of ENERGY STAR® 4.0 certification for servers and how Lenovo ThinkSystem and ThinkEdge servers are ENERGY STAR 4.0 compliant.

Change History

Changes in the October 14, 2024 update:

Introduction

ENERGY STAR® is a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency voluntary program that helps business and individuals through superior energy efficiency. It’s a simple choice that makes it easier and making it easy to purchase products that save money and protect environment.

The timeline for implementation of ENERGY STAR 4.0 for server is as follows. Refer to the following page for details:
https://www.energystar.gov/products/spec/energy_star_computer_servers_version_4_0_pd

  • 12 April 2023: U.S. EPA published ENERGY STAR Computer Servers Version 4.0 Final Specification for computer server.
  • After August 30, 2023, certification bodies of ENERGY STAR will be instructed to stop certifying new product submittals to Version 3.0. The existing certifications to V3.0 will remain valid for the purposes of ENERGY STAR certification until January 12, 2024
  • January 12 2024, ENERGY STAR Computer Servers Version 4.0 is/will be in effect. Any computer server manufactured as of January 12, 2024, must meet the Version 4.0 requirements to bear the ENERGY STAR mark. All certifications of products to the Version 3.0 specification will be invalid for purposes of ENERGY STAR and cerfification bodies (CBs) will only submit product models certified to Version 4.0 to EPA.

Key updates/Criteria comparison between ENERGY STAR 3.0 and 4.0,

  • New average pass rates of active state efficiency across the subcategories range between 24% and 34%.
  • Add new definitions for Storage Heavy Servers and Hyperconverged Servers.
  • Remove storage and I/O from the list of characteristics to define products family.
  • Enhance the power supply efficiency and power factor Refer to following chapter Table 3 and Table 4 for detail power supply efficiency and power factor requirements.
  • There were small changes made to the scope, to exclude products that would never be sold without an Auxiliary Processing Accelerators (APA) such as a GPU or FPGA.

Requirements for ENERGY STAR 4.0

Topics in this section:

For other hardware design requirements, refer to ENERGY STAR Program Requirements for Computer Servers 4.0 for details.

Product family

According to ENERGY STAR Computer Servers Version 4.0 Final Specification, specific configurations within one product family with some specific attributes can be used for processing the certification, to cover hundreds of possible hardware and software configurations. However, all product configurations within a product family must meet ENERGY STAR requirements. The required data in the Version 4.0 specification must be evaluated and submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for certification.

  • High-end performance configuration:

    This product configuration is intended to represent the highest performance computing platform within the Product Family. This configuration shall include the highest processor performance per socket, as represented by the highest numerical value resulting from the multiplication of the core count by the frequency in GHz, offered for sale and capable of meeting ENERGY STAR requirements.

  • Typical configuration:

    A product configuration that lies between the Low-end performance and High-end performance configurations and is presentative of a deployed product with high volume sales.

  • Low-end performance configuration:

    This product configuration is intended to represent the lowest performance computing platform within the Product Family. This configuration shall include the lowest processor performance per socket, as represented by the lowest numerical value resulting from the multiplication of the core count by the frequency in GHz, offered for sale and capable of meeting ENERGY STAR requirements.

Table 1. ENERGY STAR 4.0 - Product family tested configurations
System configuration Processor Other commodity
High-end performance configuration Highest value of core count multiplied by frequency (GHz) The combination that represents the highest-performance computing platform within the product family
Typical configuration Between high-end and low-end processor, or high volume sale A product configuration that lies between the Low-end performance and High-end performance configurations and is presentative of a deployed product with high volume sales
Low-end performance configuration Lowest value of core count multiplied by frequency (GHz) The combination that represents the lowest-performance computing platform within the product family

Active State efficiency

There is a key criterion named Active State efficiency score (EffACTIVE) for server system, shall be calculated using the equation below and greater than or equal to the minimum Active State efficiency thresholds listed in Table 2. (Refer to the detailed definition of EffCPU, EffMEMORY and EffSTORAGE).

EffACTIVE= EXP (0.65 * ln (EffCPU) + 0.30 * ln (EffMEMORY) + 0.05 * ln (EffSTORAGE)
Table 2. Active State Efficiency Thresholds for all non-SHS Computer Servers
Product Type Minimum Eff_ACTIVE
One Installed Processor
Rack 26.4
Tower 24.4
Resilient 6.6
Two Installed Processors
Rack 30.4
Tower 26.5
Blade or Multi-Node 29.1
Resilient 6.0
Greater Than Two Installed Processors
Rack 31.9
Blade or Multi-Node 26.8

Power supply requirements

Power supplies used in products eligible for ENERGY STAR 4.0 must meet the following efficiency and power factor requirements.

Table 3. Efficiency requirements for PSUs
Power supply type Rated output power (W) 10% Load* 20% Load* 50% Load* 100% Load*
Multiple output (Ac-Dc) 750W or greater N/A 90% 92% 89%
Multiple output (Ac-Dc) Less than 750W N/A 87% (-3%) 90% (-2%) 87% (-2%)
Single output (Ac-Dc) 750W or greater 90% (+7%) 94% (+4%) 96% (+2%) 91%
Single output (Ac-Dc) Less than 750W 83% 90% 94% 91%

* Number in parentheses indicates a change from ENERGY STAR V3.0

Table 4. Power factor requirements for PSUs
Power supply type Rated output power (W) 10% Load 20% Load 50% Load 100% Load
Multiple output (Ac-Dc) All output rating N/A 0.80 0.90 0.95
Single output (Ac-Dc) Output rating ≦500W N/A 0.80 0.95 0.95
Output Rating > 500W and Output Rating ≤ 1,000W 0.65 0.80 0.95 0.95
Output rating > 1,000W 0.80 0.90 0.95 0.95

Status of Lenovo ThinkSystem and ThinkEdge support

Lenovo ThinkSystem and ThinkEdge servers meet all the criteria for ENERGY STAR 4.0 when using the High-End Performance or Typical configurations.

For the Low-End Performance configurations, due to multi offerings for different use case through industry, some low-cost CPU SKUs with a low number of cores and/or low frequency cannot meet the minimum Active State efficiency criteria, and are therefore not ENERGY STAR 4.0 compliant. These exception SKUs are listed in the following table.

Note, even if a compliant processor SKU is installed, the server may still not be ENERGY STAR 4.0 compliant if a PSU is installed that doesn’t meet the minimum PSU efficiency and power factor requirements, as listed in the tables in the Power supply requirements section.

Table 5. Non-compliant Lenovo servers
Lenovo ThinkSystem or ThinkEdge Server Processors that do not meet ENERGY STAR 4.0 Active State efficiency criteria
Servers with Intel Xeon 6 processor
SR630 V4 No restriction (all processors qualify)
SD520 V4 No restriction (all processors qualify)
Servers with 4th Gen or 5th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors
SR630 V3 1P config: 3408U, 3508U, 5415+, 4410Y, 6434, 6434H
 2P config: 5415+, 4410T, 6434, 6434H, 8444H
SR650 V3 1P config: 3408U, 3508U, 5415+, 4410T, 6434, 6434H, 8444H, 5515+, 6534
 2P config: 5415+, 4410Y, 4410T, 6434, 6434H, 8444H, 5515+, 6534
SR850 V3, SR860 V3 2P config & 4P config: 6434H, 8444H
ST650 V3 1P config: 5415+, 4410Y, 4410T, 6434, 6434H, 3408U, 3508U
2P config: 6434, 6434H
SD650 V3, SD650-I V3, SD650-N V3 No restriction (all processors qualify)
SR950 V3 Not applicable for ENERGY STAR 4.0
SD550 V3, SD530 V3 No restriction (all processors qualify)
HS350X V3 Not certified for ENERGY STAR 4.0
Servers with 3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors
SR630 V2 1P config: 4309Y, 4310T, 5315Y, 6334
2P config: 4309Y, 4310T, 4310, 5315Y, 6334
SR650 V2 1P config & 2P config: 4309Y, 4310T, 4310, 5315Y, 6334, 5317, 6346
SR670 V2 2P config: 4309Y, 4310T, 4310, 5315Y, 6334, 5317, 4314, 6326, 6346, 6354
ST650 V2 1P config & 2P config: 4309Y, 4310T, 5315Y, 6334
SE450 4310T, 4314
SR850 V2, SR860 V2 Not certified for ENERGY STAR 4.0
SD630 V2, SD650 V2, SD650-N V2 Not certified for ENERGY STAR 4.0
Servers with 1st and 2nd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors
SR630, SR650 Not certified for ENERGY STAR 4.0
ST550 Not certified for ENERGY STAR 4.0
SR850, SR950, SR850P Not certified for ENERGY STAR 4.0
Servers with Intel Pentium and Xeon E processors
SR250 V2, ST250 V2 Not certified for ENERGY STAR 4.0
SR250 V3, ST250 V3 G7400, G7400T, E-2414, E-2434
ST50 V3 G7400, G7400T
Servers with Intel Xeon D processors
SE350 V2, SE360 V2 Not applicable for ENERGY STAR 4.0
Servers with AMD EPYC 9004 Series processors
SR635 V3, SR655 V3 No restriction (all processors qualify)
SR665 V3, SR645 V3, SR675 V3 No restriction (all processors qualify)
SD665 V3, SD665-N V3 No restriction (all processors qualify)
SD535 V3 No restriction (all processors qualify)
Servers with AMD EPYC 8004 series processor
SE455 V3 No restriction (all processors qualify)
Servers with AMD EPYC 7003 Series and AMD EPYC 7002 Series processors
SR635, SR655 7203P, 7203, 7232P, 7262, 72F3
SR645 1P config: 7232P, 7203, 7203P, 72F3, 7262
2P config: 72F3
SR665 1P config & 2P config: 72F3
Servers with AMD EPYC 4004 Series processors
ST45 V3 No restriction (all processors qualify)

Authors

Henry Chen is an EMC & Environmental specialist for Lenovo in Taipei.

Jane Zhuang is an Environmental specialist for Lenovo in Beijing.

Ziqian Cao (Mars Cao) is an Environmental specialist for Lenovo in Beijing.

Trademarks

Lenovo and the Lenovo logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Lenovo in the United States, other countries, or both. A current list of Lenovo trademarks is available on the Web at https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/legal/copytrade/.

The following terms are trademarks of Lenovo in the United States, other countries, or both:
Lenovo®
ThinkEdge®
ThinkSystem®

The following terms are trademarks of other companies:

AMD and AMD EPYC™ are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.

Intel®, Pentium®, and Xeon® are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries.

Other company, product, or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.