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Sustainability Report 2007
What Semiconductors can do for Life and the Earth
Contributing to Reductions in Electricity Consumption
Electricity consumption is increasing all over the world as a direct consequence of rapid growth in the field of electronics.
Japan consumes 5% of the world's electricity, which amounts to 889 million kWh every year. This results in 365 million tons of CO2 being emitted on an annual basis.
In our role as a manufacturer of semiconductors, we at SANYO Semiconductor develop and manufacture our products using extremely low-power consumption technology, thereby contributing to reductions in electricity consumption.
- Global electricity consumption: 16,767,700,000,000kWh per annum (*1)
- Japan's electricity consumption: 889,000,000,000kWh per annum (*2)
- Amount of CO2 emitted for each kWh of electricity used in Japan: 0.410kg -CO2 (*2)
- Emissions amounting to 365 million tons of CO2 greenhouse gas is the equivalent of enough dry-ice to fill Tokyo Dome approximately 190 times.
*1 Source: National Statistics 2007 issued by the Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications
*2 Results for Fiscal 2006 Based on the Fiscal 2007 Environmental Action Plan issued by The Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan
Introduction of Extremely Low-power Consumption Technology
SANYO GokLow® (Ultra-Low) Series IC, which achieved extremely low-power consumption, for use in silicon audio equipment
Compressed Audio (MP3, etc.) CODEC
(Conventional Model)
- High power consumption (50mW or more)
- Can be implemented with DSP software
- Limits how low the operational frequency can be set (40MHz or higher)
- Life-span of the battery is extremely short
(Maximum of approximately 30 hours for one AA battery)
SANYO Hard Wired CODEC
(GokLow®)
- Low power consumption (approximately 10mW)
- CODEC made possible with an H/W circuit
- Decoding possible from 4MHz to 16MHz
- Life-span of the battery maximized
(150 hours for one AA battery, to be expanded to 200 hours)

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ICs for Use with Silicon Audio Equipment
LC823402 GokLow®
Providing extremely low-power consumption
and high sound quality