low power consumption
In the interest of environmental preservation, the Energy Star Program of the EPA (United States Environmental Protection Agency) strongly recommends reducing PC power consumption.This initiative is also strongly backed by other US agencies as well as public corporations. PC manufacturers all across the world should recognize and cooperate with the Energy Star Program, and seek ways to minimize PC power consumption. At SAMSUNG, we are developing energy-efficient HDDs and monitors. These two components have the highest rates of power consumption and we are working hard to develop more efficient and environmentally-friendly designs.
SAMSUNG's SpinPoint Series offer a Power Saving mode as well as a self-developed Power Control method. These device help reduce power consumption by more than 40%. To optimize HDD Power Control,
SAMSUNG researchers are developing a new technology that involves DRAM. This SAMSUNG Semiconductor innovation may provide the technology we need to create a high-performing PC that is energy efficient. Energy Star Program The Energy Star Program was established in 1992 by the EPA. Both the EPA and DOE (United States Department of Energy) have forged partnerships with over 1500 companies to produce energy-efficient products. Today, over 1200 companies manufacture over 500 products a year that are tagged with the Energy Star seal.
The PC market is one of the world's fastest growing industries-it is also one of the highest in energy consumption. Because most computers are on, but non-operational, they waste an enormous amount of precious energy.
The Energy Star Program requires participating PC manufacturers to equip their PCs with an automatic power-saving mode (under 30 watts) during non-operation to reduce energy waste. EPA estimates the program will generate a savings of $7-$52 per computer, per year.
The Energy Star Program has been very successful, and more and more PC manufacturers are adhering to its cuase.Complying manufacturers have reduced monitor and HDD power by establishing an "ATA definition" standard-Standbye or Sleep mode (during non-operation).
In this mode, commands from Host PC access and respond to media with the quickest speed.A disc begins spinning and a head moves onto the disc. PC consume the most energy in this mode.
In this mode, a PC accesses commands quickly, but responds slowy because the read/write circuit is off.
The respondent speed of this mode to a special command is much slower than that of Normal mode.
In this time, disc rotation consumes more power.
In this mode, the interface accepts a command, but because of disc non-rotation, it cannot be accessible to media in this mode. Under 1 watt of power is consumed in this mode.
In this mode, the interface is off and virtually all HDD operations cease. Operations resume, however, when the Standby command is delivered to the Host PC. Power consumption can be dramatically reduced in this mode.
| Mode | R/W | Spindle (Mbytes/s) |
VCM | Servo | Interface | CPU | ADC | Pre-Amp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sleep | Off | Off | Off | Off | disk Off host Off |
Off | Off | Off |
| Standby | Off | Off | Off | Off | disk Off host Off |
Off | Off | Off |
| Idle | off Partially (Time base generator) |
On | On | On | disk Off host Off |
On | On | On |
| Normal | On | On | On | On | On | On | On | On |
With the Controller Chip, SAMSUNG is able to reduce PC power consumption without comprising
performance and quality. We expect other PC manufacturers to follow this energy-saving trend and begin implementing their own technologies to create more power-efficient PCs.
