Semiconductors make OTT platforms possible: remember that when you chill.

Everybody’s streaming media today, either on their commutes or in their free time. Everyone seems subscribed to at least one OTT service, such as Netflix, Watcha Play, or Wave. Consumption of OTT services has increased drastically in recent times, given the long hours we’ve had to spend at home. Just what are these services that allow us to watch dramas and movies without downloading? And what hidden technologies make them possible? OTT services are everywhere these days - but what are they?

Services that provide media contents such as dramas, movies, and animations over the Internet are called OTT (Over-the-Top) services. Early OTT services came in the form of set top boxes which connected to your TV. The ‘Top’ from ‘over-the-top’ refers to a set top box or other similar devices. We then saw new platforms for the service appear on the scene, and content distribution expanded into mobile devices, broadening the scope of OTT. OTT platforms can be divided into ‘real-time broadcast’ and ‘VOD’ types. Real-time broadcast type OTTs, which service terrestrial broadcasting in real-time, include Tving and Wave, and VOD-type services include Netflix and Watcha Play. The data center: storage for OTT platform contents It’s easy to mistakenly think that OTT service content just exists somewhere out in the Internet, since accessing this content doesn’t require downloading. But the truth is, massive storage is required to provide OTT platform services. And that massive storage is provided by the ‘data center’, a gargantuan online data repository.

Data centers are where web servers are operated and are facilities where all the equipment required to provide IT services are installed, operated, and managed in a single building. Think of it as a place where thousands upon thousands of data-storing desktop PCs are kept. Recently the likes of Disney, Apple, and AT&T have leaped onto the OTT bandwagon, and the data center has grown in importance. These OTT players are providing content stored in in-house data centers or through ‘Cloud services’ offered by existing large corporate data centers. ‘DRAM’ and ‘SSD’ memory semiconductors make or break a data center. ‘Memory semiconductors’ for data storage are essential to the operations of a data center. Of the many types of memory semiconductor around, the most mainly used types are DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) and SSDs.

The DRAM used in data centers comes in the form of modules, with multiple packages populating a single circuit board. This is because high main memory performance is a requisite for handling ever-increasing data center traffic. DRAM modules used by data centers and servers come in two flavors: ‘RDIMM(Registered Dual In-line Memory Module)’, characterized by fast speed and high reliability, and LRDIMM(Load Reduced Dual In-line Memory Module), which provides capacity on par with RDIMM modules and adds a buffer to the module to improve system data processing speeds. Samsung Electronics produces high-capacity server DRAM modules as well. RDIMMs ranging in capacity from 4GB to 256GB are produced, and using Samsung’s high-capacity RDIMMs, each CPU can be assigned a whopping 4TB of memory. Safe storage of the mass data generated by OTT platforms requires highly reliable high-capacity storage. Samsung Electronics announced mass production of PCIe 4.0-enabled NVME SSDs with the best-in-history performance in August. These SSDs provide stable storage of up to 30.72TB each, helping data centers reduce server form factors for better economy. We’ve taken a look at how semiconductors make OTT services work. Who knew we needed semiconductors so much just to sit back and chill? Growth of the media content platform market is translating to further growth for the memory semiconductor market. OTT services have us spoiled for choice. Just remember, we have semiconductors to thank!