The proliferation of IoT devices is driving the need for large amounts of computing in the cloud. So data centers are experiencing substantial growth, and they need efficient power so that they can deliver high efficiency while minimizing the heat. Electricity is consumed when powering these data centers, but also when cooling them. The solution has to be increased power density so that the footprint can be minimized.
Intersil launched a new platform product called the digital multiphase family, which includes digital multiphase controllers and companion power stage products, that is a power solution for supporting infrastructures for data centers, wireless bay stations, networking switches, and routers. The platform supports high-current loads for devices such as memory chips.
The product is digital and can be tuned on the fly, changing quickly as the need arises. The multiphase controllers feature a digital compensator that helps power designers develop solutions that have no external compensation because device tuning is managed digitally with software. The company says that a complete power solution can be developed in 30 minutes compared to spending days managing RC tables with competing designs.
The product solution provides different interfaces, and all of them provide a PMBus for the data-out telemetry features. It also provides the adaptive voltage scaling interface (AVSBus), which is an interface between the device and the processor. The processor determines how much power is required and essentially tells the controller what it needs to support different tasks. The controller supports Intel, IBM, AMD, Broadcom, ARM, Qualcomm, and other processor chips.
The product also supports optical transport, routers, and switches for wired infrastructure; base stations and line cards for wireless needs; and server, storage, and accelerator cards for the data center.
Intersil says that the solution features 12 digital multiphase controllers and a companion smart-power stage, including the industry’s first digital solution with an AVSBus. The new digital controllers provide up to seven phases assignable in any combination across two outputs and combine with smart-power stages to provide a scalable solution from 10 A to 450 A. The result is enhanced power optimization and more energy-efficient networking and communications infrastructure equipment.
AVSBus joins the PMBus V1.3 specification and features a 50-MHz high-speed bus that connects directly to the processor to communicate telemetry data and deliver efficiency savings through adaptive voltage positioning. Intersil’s new dc/dc controllers and the ISL99227 60-A smart-power stage support demanding CPU core voltages, memory, and auxiliary power rails, enabling power designers to customize their solution to meet any rail requirements.
The digital multiphase family is comprised of three groups of controllers. The ISL68137 and ISL68134 controllers use the AVSBus to power and communicate with ARM-based processors in network routers, switches, servers, storage, and wireless telecom equipment. Two general-purpose controllers (ISL68127 and ISL68124) power network processors, FPGAs, SoCs, and graphics accelerators. And eight controllers (ISL69147/44, ISL69137/34, ISL69128/27, and ISL69125/24) add a secondary high-speed interface (SVID or SVI2) to power the latest Intel and AMD processors in cloud computing applications that make up the Internet of Things (IoT) backbone.
The ISL681xx and ISL691xx controllers integrate a high-performance digital engine featuring a patented synthetic current control architecture that tracks each phase current with zero latency. This allows the device to respond to any load transient with precise current and voltage positioning and 30% less capacitance than competitive devices. Synthetic current control also makes it possible to develop high-reliability systems using all ceramic capacitors.
Engineers are able to realize the flexibility and benefit of digital control through Intersil’s PowerNavigator GUI software tool. PowerNavigator connects to development boards communicating across PMBus and AVSBus, allowing engineers to set up and control all parameters, optimize efficiency via precise current thresholds for adding/dropping phases, and adjust the loop tuning. PowerNavigator eliminates board rework as designs are completed with on-the-fly changes for stability tuning and optimization. The final configuration is simply stored to non-volatile memory.
The ISL681xx and ISL691xx digital multiphase controllers and ISL99227 smart-power stage are available now. The ISL99227 smart-power stage is supplied in a 5 x 5-mm, 32-lead QFN package and is priced at $5.21 USD in 1K quantities. Development boards are also available to help engineers scale power supply performance and select connectivity requirements for rapid prototyping and development.
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