Power management device wins top award

For the second year in a row, a programmable analogue device from Summit Microelectronics has won top honours for outstanding design and functionality.

For the second year in a row, a programmable analogue device from Summit Microelectronics has won top honours for outstanding design and functionality.

AnalogZone, an online design engineering resource, has named Summit's SMB120 nine-channel programmable power management integrated circuit the "Best consumer advance in power management" for 2004.

Last year, Summit's SMM665 programmable six-channel controller won the 2003 award for what AnalogZone termed its "extremely clever power management technology".

"In the design cycle of all products, the exact power requirements are rarely known until the remainder of the design is complete; then there is an almighty rush to get the power supply designed", noted Paul McGoldrick, Editor-in-Chief of AnalogZone.

"An off-the-shelf programmable solution is the ideal: and here it is with the SMB120".

Bill Thomas, acting CEO of Summit, said: "Communication equipment manufacturers have utilised our programmable power management technology for years".

"We now have leveraged our expertise in that area for implementation in consumer electronics".

"The AnalogZone award acknowledges the importance of the functionality we bring to the consumer market".

The SMB120 is the first in a line of devices to power consumer electronics products running from a single- or dual-cell Li-ion battery where the voltages needed for different functions of the product must be individually tailored to increase battery life.

Using what AnalogZone calls Summit's "already proven programmable technology", the SMB120 lets designers digitally program a product's entire multiple output power supply and the associated power management functions with a few clicks of a mouse.

This simple process replaces the tedious iterative hardware design of conventional analogue power solutions.

The benefit to product manufacturers is a drastically reduced development time and engineering investment.

This allows OEMs and ODMs to bring products to market faster and more reliably to satisfy the demanding global consumer electronics market.

Additionally the flexible control afforded by the programmable technology contained in the SMB120 can yield gains in battery efficiency and lifetime, which is attractive in an increasing mobile product mix for most consumer electronics OEMs.

Summit's device is ideal for a vast array of consumer products, including digital camcorders/cameras (DCC/DSC), portable media players (PMP), automotive DVD players, global positioning systems (GPS), and LCD TVs.

Introduced in November 2004, the device is being shipped now in production quantities.

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