Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2012/08/06/lsi_sandforce_power/

If Ultrabooks lasted longer, would YOU open your wallet?

LSI is betting its flashy controllers you would

By Chris Mellor

Posted in Personal Tech, 6th August 2012 08:02 GMT

Unfruity Ultrabook users will be able to keep it up for longer with LSI's specially enhanced SandForce controllers.

The SF-2100 and -2200 Flash Storage Processors as they are called handle flash so sensitively that Ultrabook users may get an extra hour of battery life compared to other, non-specified controllers. It's all to do with power management optimisation which, LSI claims, enable SSD manufacturers to build drives that use power more efficiently, and shorten system boot and resume times, compared to what exactly LSI doesn't say.

It does say its shipped more than 10 million SandForce flash processors since 2010; LSI bought SandForce at the end of November in 2011.

Ultrabook sales are forecast to grow 92 per cent compounded through to 2017. LSI needs Ultrabook to become popular so that it can reap the benefits of its SandForce power optimisation work. So far they have flopped as they are too expensive and don't measure up to Apple's MacBook Air standard. Cheaper, thinner and extended life models could reverse that and enable LSI to ship another 10 million or more of its SandForce products. ®