HP’s PCFax: Sustainability Through Re-using Used PCs

The United Nations’ International E-waste Monitor estimates that the world generates over 60 million tonnes of e-waste yearly. Moreover, this quantity is rising 5 instances as quick as e-waste recycling. A lot of this waste comes from prematurely discarded digital units.

Many enterprises comply with an ordinary three-year substitute cycle, assuming older computer systems are inefficient. Nonetheless, many of those units are nonetheless purposeful and will carry out properly with minor upgrades or upkeep. The difficulty is, nobody is aware of what the weak factors are for a selected machine, or what the wanted upkeep is, and the diagnostics can be too pricey and time-consuming. It’s simpler to simply purchase model new laptops.

When shopping for a used automobile, dealerships and particular person consumers can entry every automobile’s specific CarFax report, detailing the automobile’s utilization and upkeep historical past. Armed with this data, dealerships can carry out the mandatory fixes or upgrades earlier than reselling the automobile. And people can determine whether or not to belief that automobile’s efficiency. We at HP realized that, to stop pointless e-waste, we have to gather and make out there utilization and upkeep knowledge for every laptop computer, like a CarFax for used PCs.

There’s a specific problem to gathering utilization knowledge for a PC, nonetheless. We’d like to verify to guard the consumer’s privateness and safety. So, we got down to design a data-collection protocol for PCs that manages to stay safe.

The firmware-level knowledge collector

Fortunately, the sensors that may gather the mandatory knowledge are already put in in every PC. There are thermal sensors that monitor CPU temperature, power-consumption screens that monitor power effectivity, storage well being indicators that assess strong state drive (SSD) put on ranges, efficiency counters that measure system utilization, fan-rotation-speed sensors that detect cooling effectivity, and extra. The bottom line is to gather and retailer all that knowledge in a safe but helpful manner.

We determined that one of the simplest ways to do that is to combine the life-cycle information into the firmware layer. By embedding telemetry capabilities instantly inside the firmware, we be sure that system well being and utilization knowledge is captured the second it’s collected. This knowledge is saved securely on HP SSD drives, leveraging hardware-based safety measures to guard in opposition to unauthorized entry or manipulation.

The safe telemetry protocol we’ve developed at HP works as follows. We collect the essential {hardware} and sensor knowledge and retailer it in a delegated space of the SSD. This space is write-locked, that means solely licensed firmware elements can write to it, stopping unintended modification or tampering. That licensed firmware element we use is the Endpoint Safety Controller, a devoted piece of {hardware} embedded in business-class HP PCs. It performs a essential function in strengthening platform-level safety and works independently from the principle CPU to offer foundational safety.

  The safe telemetry protocol collects knowledge from sensors into a bit of {hardware} generally known as an endpoint safety controller, with built-in safety protections. The endpoint safety controller then writes the info to a devoted read-only portion of the strong state drive, the place licensed working system purposes can entry the info.Mark Montgomery

The endpoint safety controller establishes a safe session by retaining the key key inside the controller itself. This mechanism allows learn knowledge safety on the SSD—the place telemetry and delicate knowledge are saved—by stopping unauthorized entry, even when the working system is reinstalled or the system atmosphere is in any other case altered.

Then, the collected knowledge is recorded in a time-stamped file, saved inside a devoted telemetry go online the SSD. Storing these information on the SSD has the good thing about guaranteeing the info is persistent even when the working system is reinstalled or another drastic change in software program atmosphere happens.

The telemetry log employs a cyclic buffer design, robotically overwriting older entries when the log reaches full capability. Then, the telemetry log may be accessed by licensed purposes on the working system stage.

The PCFax

The telemetry log serves as the muse for a complete system historical past report. Very similar to a CarFax report for used automobiles, this report, which we name PCFax, will present each present customers and potential consumers with essential data.

The PCFax report aggregates knowledge from a number of sources past simply the on-device telemetry logs. It combines the safe firmware-level utilization knowledge with data from HP’s manufacturing facility and supply-chain information, digital-services platforms, customer-support service information, diagnostic logs, and extra. Moreover, the system can combine knowledge from exterior sources together with associate gross sales and repair information, refurbishment associate databases, third-party element producers like Intel, and different unique gear producers. This multisource method creates a whole image of the system’s whole life cycle, from manufacturing by means of all subsequent possession and repair occasions.

For IT groups inside organizations, we hope the PCFax will carry simplicity and provides alternatives for optimization. Gaining access to fine-grained utilization and well being data for every system of their fleet might help IT managers determine which units are despatched to which customers, in addition to when upkeep is scheduled. This knowledge can even assist system managers determine which particular units to switch relatively than issuing new computer systems robotically, enhancing sustainability. And this might help with safety: With real-time monitoring and firmware-level safety, IT groups can mitigate dangers and reply swiftly to rising threats. All of this could facilitate extra environment friendly use of PC sources, reducing down on pointless waste.

  A PCFax report, very similar to a CarFax, will element essential utilization and upkeep data to assist inform potential clients. Hewlett Packard

We additionally hope that, a lot because the CarFax provides folks confidence in shopping for used automobiles, the PCFax can encourage resale of used PCs. For enterprises and customers buying second-life PCs, it supplies detailed visibility into the whole service and help historical past of every system, together with any repairs, upgrades, or efficiency points encountered throughout its preliminary deployment. By making this complete system historical past available, PCFax allows extra PCs to search out productive second lives relatively than being prematurely discarded, instantly addressing the e-waste problem whereas offering financial advantages to each sellers and consumers within the secondary PC market.

Whereas HP’s options symbolize a big step ahead, challenges stay. Standardizing telemetry frameworks throughout numerous ecosystems is essential for broader adoption. Moreover, educating organizations about the advantages of life-cycle information shall be important to driving uptake.

We’re additionally engaged on integrating AI into our dashboards. We hope to make use of AI fashions to investigate historic telemetry knowledge and predict failures earlier than they occur, resembling detecting rising SSD write cycles to forecast impending failure and alert IT groups for proactive substitute, or predicting battery degradation and robotically producing a service ticket to make sure a substitute battery is prepared earlier than failure, minimizing downtime.

We plan to begin rolling out these options in the beginning of 2026.