The computer scientists at UC San Diego and Microsoft Research have come up with a new technology to put computers in a doze that can save energy up to 60 to 80 percent.

Yuvraj Agarwal, doctoral researcher of the University of California San Diego (UCSD) with a team of Microsoft Research computer scientists has developed a plug-and-play hardware prototype for personal computers (PCs), which induces a new energy-saving state they call 'sleep talking'.

According to the researchers, in normal conditions, PCs are either “Awake,” when they consume power even when not in use, or “Sleep,” when they save power but are unresponsive to network traffic, but in the “new sleep talking state,” PCs offer much of the energy savings of sleep mode and some of the network-and-Internet-connected convenience of awake mode

Yuvraj Agarwal explained, "Large numbers of people keep their PCs in awake mode even though the PCs are relatively idle for long blocks of time because they want to stay connected to an internal network or the Internet or both.”

Agarwal added, "I realised that most of the tasks that people keep their computers on for - like ensuring remote access and availability for virus scans and backup, maintaining presence on instant messaging (IM) networks, being available for incoming voice-over-IP (VoIP) calls, and file sharing and downloading - can be achieved at much lower power-use levels than regular awake mode.”

Based on this concept, the researchers have developed a small hardware and software plug-in system that allows a PC to stay in sleep mode while maintaining network presence and running well-defined application functions. The system, which researchers have termed “Somniloquy” (meaning speaking while asleep), supports instant messaging applications, VoIP, large background web downloads, peer-to-peer file sharing networks, such as BitTorrent, and remote access. According to researchers, “Somniloquy” system can easily be extended to support other applications.

Agarwal said, "Reducing energy consumed by wall-powered devices, especially computing equipment, offers a huge opportunity to save money and reduce greenhouse gasses."