On Monday, Advanced Micro Devices announced technology that will <A HREF="http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9584_22-5477059.html?tag=zdnn.alert">help its server processors run cooler</A> when idle, a feature that could help customers grapple with electricity and air-conditioning costs. Processor performance gains have been outpaced by increasing power demands and corresponding amounts of waste heat, a problem for those wishing to pack servers more densely in data centers without risking overheating problems such as data loss or crashes. To help ameliorate the situation, AMD has begun bringing power-reduction technology initially developed for its notebook processors to its Opteron processors for servers.