Alliance is formed to address 48V conversion

The Alliance will mean there is no single source for the modules which will combine DOSA (Distributed power Open Standards Alliance) and POLA (Point of Load Alliance) standards.

Internet data traffic is expected to increase rapidly, propelled by autonomous vehicles and home automation. As a result, said Bob Cantrell is senior field applications engineer at Flex Power Modules, the size of power cabinets in data centres will triple or even quadruple to around 20 to 40kW. It is imperative that an efficient approach to power silicon for 48V use is determined, he says.

One of the main benefits of the Power Stamp Alliance standard footprint is scalability, regardless of the processor used, said Cantrell. Some customers have reported two to three per cent efficiency increases and board space savings of 45 per cent, replacing one or two intermediate quarter bricks.

Data centres can use CPUs, DDRs, FPGAs and ASICs, all of which can be addressed by the modular, board-mounted modules for power conversion for 48Vin to low voltage, high current applications.

The Alliance will initially address the Intel VR13 Skylake CPUs, Intel VR13-HC Ice Lake CPUs, DDR memories, IBM POWER9 (P9) architecture processors and devices using the PMBus AVS (Adaptive Voltage Scaling) protocol or SVID (Serial Voltage IDentification) protocol.

Single stage power conversion at 48V single stage power conversion provide a scalable, efficient module, or power stamp, that can be used with existing power-conversion devices and which is available from multiple sources.

The PSA has published specifications, drawings and pin-out descriptions for main and satellite power stamps at its website.