Micron Technology today introduced its new Aspen DDR2 memory family of energy-efficient products, featuring the low-voltage (LV) DDR2 in reduced chip count (RCC) memory modules.
The new Aspen is designed to lower server power consumption. The memory is available for OEM customers now. Mass production is slated for the fourth quarter of 2007.
The DDR2 components that are used in servers today typically operate at 1.8 volts but Aspen only requires 1.5 volts. Additionally, by upgrading to Micron's new 1Gb-based RCC modules from 512Mb-based modules, memory power can be reduced even further, providing a total savings of up to 50%, the company stressed.
According to a recent study conducted by Jonathan Koomey with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBL) and funded by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), enterprise data center servers, such as the mega-computers that power the Internet or those used to house financial institution customer data, consumed 123 billion kilowatt-hours worldwide in 2005. That includes the overhead for power delivery and cooling of the servers.
Based on Koomey's analysis, Micron estimates the portion attributed to the memory to be 25 billion kilowatt-hours. By implementing Micron's new Aspen memory modules, data centers could reduce system memory power consumption by approximately 24%, which is a reduction of six billion kilowatt-hours. Based on today's typical energy rates, this reduction could result in total annual savings of US$300 million. To better illustrate the point, these savings would be equivalent to the electricity used annually by about 500,000 households.