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Comment by nitrogen | Hacker News Reader

The 1.2TB model uses 22 watts for writing at 1200MB/s (54MB per second per watt). I guess performance comes at a power cost.

As a comparison, the 1TB Samsung 850 Evo uses 5.7W maximum for writing at 520MB/s (91MB per second per watt).

The earlier versions had two performance modes, one with lower power consumption. Not sure if its MB/s or iops per watt you should measure.

In fact it's generally true that for a given architecture and silicon technology, power increases as the square of speed.

It's usually voltage as the square factor for CMOS. The equation I remember from VLSI is:

  Power = (Load Capacitance) * (Voltage)^2 * (Frequency)

In order to run at a faster speed you frequently have to increase your core voltage which causes a square increase.

Incidentally 1 farad * 1 volt ^ 2 * 1/s is 1 watt. So this formula seems accurate :)

Strange given Intel's superior manufacturing capabilities?

Intel/Micron NAND isn't superior to Samsung. Intel's 14 nm is great, but NAND is a totally different thing.