Happy Friday, everyone.
Today’s top story is all about digital control—specifically, how to determine the optimal speed and resolution for digital-to-analog (DAC) and analog-to-digital (ADC) converters in a system.
Digital control also plays a fundamental role in battery management. Maximizing a battery’s state of charge (SOC) and state of health (SOH) depends on accurately measuring internal cell conditions and then adjusting charge and discharge cycles. To test your knowledge of lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries, check out the quiz below. Each question is followed by a brief explanation of the answer, along with technical resources to help fill in any gaps.
Also in this issue, Electronic Design’s Editor-in-Chief examines the current state of the AI chip market currently led by Nvidia. Whoever controls it could have huge implications for the analog and power segments. Nvidia's graphics processing units (GPUs) are widely seen as the gold standard for AI training and inference in data centers. According to market researcher Yole Group, the company is now “a critical influencer” in the power electronics ecosystem.
As power demands in AI data centers grow to more than 3 kW per server and 100 kW per rack, Yole said that many of the leading power-supply companies are aligning their products with Nvidia's unique thermal, mechanical, and electrical requirements. The chip giant is pushing new concepts like disaggregated power racks, and investing in a supply chain for high-voltage DC (HVDC) power distribution.
Nvidia holds all the best cards in AI hardware—and in the power electronics space, no one wants to bet against it.
-James Morra, Senior Editor
