At a company press event today, Samsung Semiconductor vice president Jim Elliott said today that the move to low power alternatives for DRAM memory, solid state drives (SSDs) and hard disk drives, as well as LCD screens, has accelerated over the past 12 months and needs to continue to accelerate over the next few years.
“On the road to digital advancement, the component industry is augmenting a singular obsession with higher performance, to embrace green innovations, which will to become much greener as we move down the digital highway,” Elliott said.
Speaking before journalists and industry analysts, Elliott kicked-off the first annual “Power Green” Samsung Press Lunch by saying that the semiconductor industry was setting an example of environmental sensitivity because it clearly realizes that “the need for energy-efficient design is here to stay and given the state of the global economy, that need has only been magnified.”
Elliott said Samsung and many of its customers understand the requirement for greater energy efficiency at higher performance levels and are working aggressively to offer advanced-featured, low-power products that meet those demands. Samsung’s broad component portfolio ranges from high-performance, ultra-low-power DRAM, to high-density flash chips that consume less power, to cell phone screens and LCD TVs with LED (light emitting diode) backlighting that require a fraction of the energy they have been using.
“Here at Samsung, we have been working closely with key customers to offer the best green solutions possible. Moreover, our R&D teams continue to aggressively drive designs to lower power consumption levels with a clear objective of creating value-add solutions that better enable a green ecosystem,” Elliott added.
He pointed to Samsung’s push to have new 1.35 volt (V) DDR3 at 1066 Megabits per second (Mbps) consume 40 percent less power than today’s 1.8V 667Mbps DDR2 main memory, and how we will offer up to a 50 percent power savings with Pentile LCD screens for cell phones. Elliott also said new solid state drives (SSDs) and hard disk drives (HDDs) were other examples of how component producers are becoming increasingly sensitive to environmental concerns. He further pointed to LED backlighting to make a considerable difference in energy consumption for TV displays, including new edge-lit LED-backlit LCD HDTVs**.
According to Samsung, its newest (256GB) SSDs consume only 1 . 1 watts of power versus two or more watts for conventional HDDs. The drive also can function longer in either stand-by or idle mode resulting in up to 40 minutes of extended operation on a single battery charge. In addition, Samsung’s new 100 GB enterprise SSDs use just 1.9 watts of power in active mode and 0.6 watts in idle mode. These “green” enterprise ratings tower over typical 15K HDDs for the enterprise, which consume between 8 to 15 watts in active mode and 1 to 2 watts in idle mode.
And with HDDs, we’re seeing a concentrated push for greater energy efficiency. Samsung’s newest hard drive (the F2EG) – announced earlier this month – offers lower power consumption by making use of EcoTriangle, a low-power, low-heat operating technology. With a highly advanced design that includes fewer components, the F2EG drive uses 40 percent less power in idle mode and 45 percent less in reading/writing mode than most competitive drives for servers, home media PCs, external HDDs, set-top boxes and personal NAS devices.
About Samsung Electronics Company
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, digital media and digital convergence technologies with 2007 consolidated sales of US$105 billion. Employing approximately 150,000 people in 134 offices in 62 countries, the company consists of two main business units: Digital Media & Communications and Device Solutions. Recognized as one of the fastest growing global brands, Samsung Electronics is a leading producer of digital TVs, memory chips, mobile phones and TFT-LCDs. For more information, please visit www.samsung.com .