Industry drives standards for smart power adapters

Industry drives standards for smart power adapters

The recently formed IEEE Standards Association P1823 working group is developing a specification for universal power adapters for mobile devices (UPAMD). “By bringing together everyone with a stake in the migration to a universal smart power interface, the IEEE is helping break down the product silos and other barriers that have delayed the broad adoption of universal power adapters for mobile and other devices,” said Paul Panepinto, vice president of Ecosystem Development at Green Plug. “This collaborative effort is further evidence that smart power is an idea whose time has come.”

The goal of the IEEE P1823 Working Group is to obtain agreement between electronics manufacturers and vendors on a common interconnection for power delivery to portable and fixed electronic devices in the 10 to 130-W range. The establishment of an industry-wide standard is viewed by many as a critical step toward the replacement of brand- and model-specific analog power adapters (which often end up in landfills as people upgrade their computing, entertainment, household, and office equipment) with digital power supplies that can be used and reused with multiple devices.

For more than four years, Green Plug has advocated for the voluntary adoption of a standard smart power protocol. “Developing a standard power interface is no small task, and there are dozens of technologies and architectures to be considered each with its tradeoffs,” Panepinto said. “Green Plug has evaluated a variety of options and developed IP solutions for electronics vendors that minimize trade-offs normally associated with flexibility, size, and cost. We look forward to bringing those ideas to the table and to supporting power supply standards as they emerge.”

Currently, the company is developing IP licensing relationships with chipmakers, collaborating with partners, such as Imagination Technologies Group, and working with consumer electronics manufacturers to expand deployment of the company’s Greenwire multifunction physical-layer technology and Greentalk digital power protocol — the key components of its Green Plug Power System. Get more information at Green Plug (www.greenplug.us).