Product category:
DC/DC Convertors
News Release from: Emerson Network Power - Embedded Power
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 08 October 2004
Alliance to standardise power systems
control
A new coalition of leading power supply and semiconductor manufacturers aims to develop and support a new communications standard defining an open architecture for power systems control.
Artesyn Technologies and Astec Power have formed a coalition of leading power supply and semiconductor manufacturers to develop and support a new communications standard defining an open architecture for power systems control The digital protocol, referred to as "Power Management Bus" or PMBus, will be implemented over the industry-standard I2C serial bus
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 4 Feb 2000 at 8.00am (UK)
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The founding group is composed of a core set of enabling companies from both the power supply and semiconductor industries.
"Kicking off the initiative with market-leading, innovative companies such as these establishes the critical mass required to ensure success", said Todd Hendrix, VP Worldwide Marketing with Artesyn.
In addition to the power supply manufacturers, semiconductor participants include Intersil Corp, Microchip Technology, Texas Instruments, Volterra Semiconductor, Summit Microelectronics and Zilker Labs.
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Bharat Shah, VP Marketing - DC/DC Products for Emerson Network Power's Astec Power Division, said: "Having a truly open standard communication protocol is a must for industry-wide acceptance of digital architectures, and Astec Power is delighted to be a part of this working group".
The growing complexity of power systems control is changing the way power solutions operate.
In order to satisfy these requirements, the coming generation of power conversion solutions, both traditional isolated "bricks" and nonisolated point-of-load convertors, will be intelligent and offer the capability for programming and control, as well as real-time monitoring.
The protocol for communicating with these future convertors will be critical.
The PMbus digital protocol establishes an open, industry standard communication format to support these future products.
Although there are existing products and emerging solutions for power system management, the PMbus digital protocol addresses the desire of OEM customers to have open standards that result in multisourced products; it offers a much more viable alternative to the proprietary communication schemes and single-sourced solutions that are beginning to emerge.
OEM customers will continue to be able to design their systems using discrete components or turnkey convertor solutions.
However, unlike today, once the new protocol is adopted, the OEM will be able to control all compliant convertors using the same set of commands, without the need for proprietary silicon.
The PMbus digital protocol will encourage continued product innovation by removing a primary barrier; lack of a communications standard.
At the same time, it increases the opportunity for differentiation of power conversion products based on features, performance, and size.
The protocol is scalable, initially allowing for the control of more than 100 convertors.
Additionally, its flexibility eliminates the need for mandatory control ICs and/or proprietary communications software interfaces.
The first revision of the PMbus digital protocol specification is now in the final stages of completion.
The details will be released within the next 45 days.
At that point, it will be circulated to the industry for review and further comments.
An overview of the new power management protocol was recently presented at the Darnell Group's Digital Power Forum 2004 held in San Jose, California in a white paper by Robert V White, Staff Engineer in the Artesyn R and D Group.
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