Silicon Valley may be the home of the computing industry, but there's a company in Sheffield challenging the business model of the large PC producers.
Very PC is a company run by a group of people who came to study in Sheffield and loved the place so much they never left. The business is pioneering the idea of green computing, by using energy efficient, ecologically sustainable components to produce computers that use up to 75% less power than standard machines.
Like much of Sheffield's high-tech industry, the company prides itself on agility and speed. The company doesn't even bother with patents, preferring instead to challenge the cost-driven approach of big names. Peter Hopton, managing director of Very PC, explains: ''we do what is politically impossible for the big IT companies. They just can't increase, practically, the cost of their kit by a fiver, even though it might reduce the energy consumption by £50 every year.''
In a world of rising power costs and increasing environmentalism, it's an approach that could change the whole industry.
Source: http://www.very-pc.co.uk/