10.2190/807J-D180-013N-V12M 807JD180013NV12M 3 Conservation of Resources, Telecommunications, and Microprocessors 121 129 20020509 20020509 20020509 20020509 807JD180013NV12M.pdf http://baywood.metapress.com/link.asp?target=contribution&id=807JD180013NV12M 2 Stuart L. Meyer Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University The energy involved in the substitution of telecommunications for travel is investigated. For the foreseeable future, the energy cost is very dependent on the bandwidth of the telecommunication mode used and may be non-trivial for certain widely-awaited broadband services. The features of narrow-band telecommunications systems are discussed and it is shown that they can be minimally-sufficient for some applications. It is further shown how the natural incorporation of microprocessors as substitutes for random logic leads to a complete elimination of any distinction between terminals for communications and terminals for dispersed data processing. This may have implications for certain policy questions now before the Federal Communications Commission. E. G. Charles E. Lathey, Telecommunications Substitutability for Travel: An Energy Conservation Potential, U. S. Department of Commerce, Office of Telecommunications Report 75-58, COM-75-10785, January, 1975. E. M. Dickson and R. Bowers, <i>The Video Telephone</i>, Praeger, New York, especially Appendix B, 1974. Dr. J. O. Limb, Bell Telephone Laboratories, private communication. Time Assignment Speech Interpolation, e.g., T. H. Crowley, G. G. Harris, S. E. Miller, J. R. Pierce and J. P. Runyon, <i>Modern Communications</i>, Columbia University Press, 1962. J. Fast, <i>Body Language</i>, M. Evans and Company, New York, 1970. S. L. Meyer and D. Brown, A Review of Available Technology for Narrow-Band Transmission of Visual Material, <i>Biosci. Commun., 2</i>, p. 38, 1976. W. C. Cohen and S. L. Meyer, Development of the Educational Uses of Slow-Scan Televideo, <i>Biosci. Commun., 1</i>, p. 169, 1975. L. M. Terman and L. G. Heller, Overview of CCD Memory, <i>IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, SC-11</i>:1, February, 1976.