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DDR4 May Replace Mobile Memory For Less

Posted by Soulskill on from the not-dance-dance-revolution dept.

Lucas123 writes "The upcoming shift from Double Data Rate 3 (DDR3) RAM to its successor, DDR4, will herald a significant boost in both memory performance and capacity for data center hardware and consumer products alike. Because of the greater density, 2X performance and lower cost, the upcoming specification and products will for the first time mean DDR may be used in mobile devices instead of LPDDR. Today, mobile devices use low-power DDR (LPDDR) memory, the current iteration of which uses 1.2v of power. While the next generation of mobile memory, LPDDR3, will further reduce that power consumption (probably by 35% to 40%), it will also likely cost 40% more than DDR4 memory."

2 of 145 comments (clear)

  1. Re:1.2V of power? by AdamHaun · · Score: 5, Informative

    Nerds should know Ohms law.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohm's_law

    and that there is no difference between voltage and power.

    Voltage and power are related, but that doesn't mean they're the same. In fact, Ohm's Law says that they're not -- you still need information about the current (or resistance) to determine power dissipation.

    Transistor switching in digital circuits is very different from plain resistance. It's more like charging and discharging capacitors. Energy loss is proportional to voltage squared, at least for dynamic power. That's why lowering the voltage is the most important thing for power consumption.

    --
    Visit the
  2. Re:1.2V of power? by hawguy · · Score: 4, Informative

    Nerds should know Ohms law.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohm's_law

    and that there is no difference between voltage and power.

    I don't think you understand the site you linked to. P = I * V -- If power and Voltage are the same, why are they on different sides of the equation?

    While it's true that voltage is proportional to power *if* current remains the same, you can't make a blanket statement that a new technology that runs at a lower voltage necessarily uses less power. The old Pentium Pro CPU had a TDP of around 35W with a core voltage of 3.3V, but a new Core i7 can have a TDP of 125W with a core voltage less than 1.5V. Half the voltage, 5 times the power dissipation (and a whole lot more transistors to power)

    When dealing with semiconductors, it's likely that lower voltage means less power, but not guaranteed.