IBM is announcing several new servers today. One interesting feature of the press release is a new focus on power consumption and cooling. IBM directly targets the high heat generated by the SUN servers. Compared to a Sun Server, the new IBM servers have 1/3 the heat dissipation, based on the published specifications. IBM eServer p660 is 3,294 BTUs/hr compared with 9,420 BTUs/hr for a Sun Fire 3800. Of course, these numbers are pretty bogus. Most computer manufacture specification sheets are useless for accurately forecasting the power consumption of the equipment. I suspect, after Sun's PR people realize they are getting beat up, they will go back and better calculate the power consumption figures for their servers. I'm not very interested in who really has the coolest, most efficient computers. I am interested in getting accurate information for planning purposes. If this leads to computer vendors publishing more accurate information, great. I'm afraid instead, the pendulum will swing the other direction and vendors will begin understating their true power requirements.