14 DAY TRIAL // Nvidia has just announced that its Enthusiast System Architecture (ESA) extensions have been officially ratified and adopted by the USB Implementers Forum, which would ultimately lead to its global adoption as an industry standard.
The ESA specifications set has been introduced in late 2007 as a method to support a wide range of monitoring and control capabilities for PC-based systems, such as power supply temperature, fan control, chassis and water-cooling devices. The results are more than nice-looking diagrams and figures spinning on a LCD panel, but rather an extremely functional method of displaying critical data, such as temperature, thermal, voltage, and air flow attributes, that can be analyzed in real time by more or less experienced users. By fine tuning these aspects of the computer system, the user can achieve improved stability and maximum PC performance, even when the machine has been overclocked.
The ESA protocol will be added into the next revision of the USB human interface device (HID)-class definition. The aspects of cross-device compatibility and compliance with the ESA specification is being managed by IT testing organization Allion, and the products that have made it through the Allion certification process will come stamped with the ESA certification logo.
The Enthusiast System Architecture will open new possibilities to other sectors of the IT industry, such as customer support or system maintenance. For instance, the logging ability of the ESA-ready devices will allow system builders and PC manufacturers to detect and isolate all the abnormalities that occur during the PC's operating time.
While most of the data collected through ESA can be fetched via software applications and hardware sensors, the introduction of the standard simplifies the technical aspects and lets inexperienced users enjoy all the benefits described above. The ESA ratification seems to be a step in the right direction and it happens that the first ESA certified PC was just introduced as Dell's XPS 630.