The POLA alliance has announced it will jointly design and release products in accordance to the PMBus digital interface and control specification. The new PMBus specification will allow advancements and flexibility in power conversion products without increasing complexity for the end user.
Participants of the POLA alliance intend to deliver fully interoperable, digitally controlled products in 2005 with advanced features that will significantly enhance power management control. The PMBus working group consists of several power and semiconductor companies that aim to release an open protocol supporting communication to power supplies via a digital bus.
Point-of-load (POL) regulators allow more design flexibility when there are many voltages present in the same system. POL devices are particularly useful in complex circuits, such as those incorporating application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and digital signal processors (DSPs) that demand power sequencing.
The POLA alliance includes Texas Instruments Inc. (TI), Artesyn Technologies, Inc., Astec Power of Emerson Network Power and Ericsson Power Modules. Customer demand for multiple sources led the formation of the alliance and standards. POLA is the only alliance that offers completely interoperable products.
For more information, visit www.ti.com, www.artesyn.com, www.astec.com or www.ericsson.com.