Fantastic news for system builders and overclockers: ESA, the Enthusiast System Architecture is a new open standard to allow sensors inside computer systems to report back to the user from power supplies, fans & water coolers.
ESA, the Enthusiast System Architecture is a new open standard to allow sensors inside computer systems to report back to the user from power supplies, fans & water coolers. This is fantastic news for system builders and overclockers, allowing them to enable higher performance and more finely tuned computers.
ESA has been the result of collaboration between Nvidia, Dell, HP, Alienware, CoolerMaster, Thermaltake and other technology companies, to create a standard where one didn’t exist.
“We’re working with all the major system builders, we’re working with all the major component manufacturers,” said Nvidia Technical Marketing Director, Tom Petersen.
“Anybody can build an ESA system, anybody can write software for an ESA system. It’s completely open. The most interesting thing that people say is, why hasn’t this already been done? I think it’s because all the solutions in the past have been proprietary. And proprietary fails, because nobody wants to build a solution for just one platform.”
ESA gives power supplies, water coolers and chassis components a formal standard for communicating or reporting back to the PC operator. For example, what is the temperature inside your power supply? Is it unusually high? What is its output current right now? These discrete, granular measurements are the kind of new details that will allow a superior level of diagnosis. And they’ve been absent from most PC SKUs in the past.
An interesting aspect of the ESA technology is its versatility. It can be used to precisely find the sweet spot in performance between dependent components in a computer system, for example the fine line between ultimate overclocking performance and thermal overload, but being an essentially open system for sensors of all kinds, it can also be used to perfectly tune the fans in a home theatre PC, so that they’re completely inaudible.
ESA’s high performance realtime sensor feedback will give extreme tweakers new insights to take advantage of. With its integrated logging function, ESA will make it easy to identify what is causing problems in a given component, or where cooling needs to be improved. Complex airflow issues will be able to be resolved more easily and the sequence of events that lead to a thermal crash will be easier for the system builder to diagnose by reading the log data.
Dell is even using it to build their new ambient lighting system for gaming, called LightFX. This is where the computer display has additional lights mounted on it, which react to the game environment’s colouring. For example, if the player enters a dark area illuminated by red light, the LightFX might bathe the room in an eerie red glow, helping to create a more cinematic environment.
“The industry-standard device communication protocol provided with ESA enables a rich set of tools for tuning PC hardware performance. These tools offer PC enthusiasts more flexible and granular control over primary system support components,” said Kevin Kettler, PhD, and CTO of Dell Inc. “For example, the ESA standard communication method is used in Dell’s unique LightFX architecture, and will help accelerate development of deeply immersive ambient lighting in PC games.”
Similar light-sensitive and ambient light technology is available on some high-end televisions, such as the Philips Ambilight flat TV, which has a rear-mounted array of coloured lights which mimic the colour spectrum on screen. The backlighting helps reduce eye fatigue and strain.