As little as 1 per cent of a desktop computer's actual computing power is used by the average person working on their PC.
A survey of 40 computer workstations in University College Cork's Computer Science Department showed that even when all the desktops were being used by students or staff, between 90 and 99 per cent of each PC's power was going to waste.
"In terms of what the computers are capable of, this isn't even breaking a sweat," according to Dr John P. Morrison.
He said that if these computers could be networked then the "spare" power could be harnessed by organisations. Many people will only ever use a few applications on their computer, and for most it acts as no more than an advanced word-processor.
Microsoft Word, for example, only uses about 0.001 per cent of the power of your average desktop in an average session, and web-browsers like Netscape and Internet Explorer use as little as 10 per cent of the power available.
The basic reason people are having to buy more powerful computers is that new software is becoming bloated with more features that most people will never use. At one stage in the month-long study, with about 20 of the computers in use theoretically, all 20 users would need only one machine to efficiently carry out their tasks.