This information originally appeared at www.hitlights.com.
“Choosing an LED technology is like choosing the right winter coat to wear: there are different models that provide more or less features depending on what you might need. Once you decide the features you want from your LED, you can easily choose the package type accordingly. The “package type” refers to the way an LED’s semiconductor die–similar to the filament in an incandescent–is packaged inside LED devices for different applications. The LED package can be very basic, like with the DIP LEDs, or it can be very versatile to handle lots of different needs, such as with the SMD package. Modern LED technology as we know it was developed in 1962 by Nick Holonyak with his invention of the DIP LED, and the LED industry has been innovating it ever since. The following article is meant to be a brief overview of the major types of LED package technology that are commercially available today.”
The site seems to be primarily about LED strip lighting for architectural and commercial uses.