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Power consumption is a factor that every OEM or engineer has to consider when choosing a flash storage device. If a drive consumes too much power, it could overload the port or interfere with the way that application functions. There is wide misunderstanding about low power flash drives and what the differences are between low power consumption drives and those that are not considered to be low power. However, picking a flash drive that uses too much power can trigger a long list of complications for your device. Here are the answers to questions OEMs frequently have about low power flash drive technology to help you make the right choice for your application’s needs.

Aren’t all flash drives low power flash drives?

This is a common misconception about flash drives. In general, flash drives do use less power than hard disk drives. Hard disk drives, or HDDs, have to use power to rotate the disk, which is not necessary for flash drives. This means that as a whole, flash drives use less power and waste less energy on unnecessary functions. However, this doesn’t mean that all flash drives are low power consumers. They may use less than HDDs, but some still require a significant amount of power, which may overload or disrupt operations in some applications. It’s necessary to investigate the power demands of a flash drive before choosing it for your design.

How can I tell if a flash drive is low power?

Flash drives are typically advertised according to their capacity, rather than their power consumption, so gauging power needs requires digging a little deeper. There is no industry standard definition of a low power flash drive, so different manufacturers mean different things when they refer to their flash drives as low power. The best way to get a true picture of power consumption is to work with the manufacturer on testing the flash drive in your device. For OEMs in search of flash drives for industrial applications, this can be a critical step.

What influences flash drive power needs?

The size of a flash drive does not impact the amount of power it needs. Instead, design differences affect power consumption levels. In addition, a low power flash drive will experience differences in power usage depending on the operations it is performing. Write operations require more power than read operations.

The Delkin product team understands the needs of industrial applications and can work with you to test flash drive power use in your device to ensure you select the best product for your application. Contact us today for more information about industrial grade embedded storage.