JEDEC, a developer of standards for the microelectronics industry, has announced the publication of JEDEC DDR3L, an addendum to its JESD79-3 DDR3 Memory Device Standard.
DDR3L (aka DDR3 Low Voltage) devices adhering to the new standard will operate from a single 1.35V power supply voltage compared to 1.5V in existing devices. DDR3L devices offer a reduction in power consumption of 15% or more as compared to DDR3 (and 40% as compared to DDR2), when operating at the same performance and load capacity. This reduction in power consumption, especially in memory-intensive systems, is expected to have dramatic benefits in areas such as power supply demand, system cooling requirements and packaging density.
DDR3L memory devices will be functionally compatible to DDR3 memory devices, but not all devices will be interoperable at both voltage ranges.