Leaving No Patch of Green Unturned

Top memory maker, Samsung has decided that memory is a place to be green, as much as with any other part of the computer. Toward that end, they are announcing new DDR3 memory that uses less voltage than the current JDEC standards, which allows for less energy being used, and less dissipated as heat. This has benefits for both the memory lifespan and the amount of cooling that is required in total. Obviously, this is not of great improtance on a case by case basis, but in a large room, full of blade computers, it can equal a lot of savings in electrical usage.

from TechConnect

Top NAND maker Samsung Electronics has launched a new campaign focused on promoting its 40nm-manufactured 2Gb DDR3 chips. Named ‘Green Memory’, the campaign presents the energy-saving advantages of the 40nm DRAMs, which work at 1.35V, 0.15V lower than the JEDEC-approved voltage for DDR3.

To get things started, Samsung has introduced a website that provides a detailed explanation of its DDR3 DRAM’s energy efficiency.

“40nm-class DDR3 DRAM achieves a 1.35V usage level, which is only a quarter of the energy used by 60nm-class DRAM, the mainstream product in the DRAM market today. It provides a single solution to the growing demand for servers to host larger volumes and achieve higher efficiencies,” said Dongsoo Jun, Executive Vice President, Memory Sales and Marketing, Samsung Electronics. “40nm-class DDR3 DRAM will not only provide a solution for servers, but will extend to the entire IT marketplace to reach the end consumer and provide many benefits such as maintenance cost reductions.”

Produced since July, the 40nm 2Gb DDR3 DRAM is currently being used for 4GB So-DIMM and UDIMMs, as well as 8 and 16GB registered DIMMs.

It’s amazing what 0.15v changes can do, but, as the lithography shrinks, so does the power requirement. That allows the tremendous speed gains we’ve been seeing in memory, once thought impossible in the days of 5.0v DRAM.

I’m not sure this will catch on with the tweaker crowd, however, as the modules shown at the above site show that no heat spreader is used, and, for the modder’s having ‘bare’ memory is almost verboten.

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