2008 Osram Parathom R50 green

When integrated LED lamps slowly started to appear in the widespread marked around 2007 only a small type were offered. The main workhorses for energy efficient replacements were Halogen and compact fluorescent lamps.
These early LED lamps came in two designs. LED lamps that looked like incandescent lamps. These lamps generally featured a plastic housing which is filled a vast amount of 3mm or 5mm discrete LEDs. However these lamps were dim and their colour rendering was not ideal.

The other variety is what this lamp is part of. These lamps consist of mainly reflector lamps. Reflector lamps don't need a 360° light distribution. This makes it possible to construct big parts of the lamp from die-cast aluminum. While aluminum is a more expensive housing material, it allows for the usage of fewer higher power LEDs, which would overheat and fail without heatsink. The light intensity of these lamps was much superior.

The first LED lamps were offered in basic colours: WarmWhite, Cool White, single colored and colour changing.
While the first two types were less popular due to their high price and better alternatives beeing available, however the colored lamps and especially colour changing lamps were a success and these are the lamps from this time that are most easily still found today. Never before was it possible to produce such strong colour in such intensities. While colored MH lamps were powerful light sources, their colour was generally washed.

This particular lamp is Osram high power version of the reflector lamp. A smaller version was also offered in a glass envelope using 5mm leds.
This lamp features three green osram golden dragon high power LEDs.
Osram golden Dragon were Osram's inhouse developed high power plastic packaged LED's