New Industry Products

Exar Releases Intel Node Manager Compatible Programmable PMIC

April 02, 2014 by Jeff Shepard

Exar Corporation has introduced the XRP7725 quad-output, synchronous step-down, programmable PMIC compatible with Intel® Node Manager energy monitoring. By sampling the current on each of the 4 outputs every millisecond and accumulating those readings, the accuracy of the power monitoring is greatly improved over what can be accomplished through a limited I2C interface. Able to accumulate up to 512 data points, the ME (Management Engine) need only poll the XRP7725 for data every 0.5 seconds without losing information about the average power flow in the system. This feature can also be leveraged by any non-server applications requiring accurate dynamic power monitoring at all levels.

The XRP7725 joins Exar's PowerXR programmable power management family utilizing award winning patented power technology and design tools. This new programmable power system offers full control via a SMBus compliant I2C interface allowing for advanced local- and remote-reconfiguration, full performance monitoring and reporting, as well as fault handling. The output voltages can be programmed from 0.6V up to 5.5V without requiring any external components. The XRP7725 comes with the newly released PowerArchitectTM 5.1 design and configuration software which provides specific tools to quickly optimize the current monitoring.

"The XRP7725 provides server and networking design engineers a proven system power platform compatible with Intel® Node Manager," said James Lougheed, Exar's vice president, power management products. "Data center managers can now have deeper insight into power usage in the system by expanding the power system monitoring to the system rails as opposed to just the processor and memory without injecting prohibitive cost into their system. The days of data centers just monitoring power at the PDU or rack level will shortly be over."

Exar's PowerArchitectTM development tools enable designers to intelligently configure the power supply's voltage setting and current thresholds, fault monitoring and response, soft start and active shutdown timing, channel sequencing, phase shift management and loop response amongst other features. Dynamic control and full system monitoring enable system architects and power designers alike to develop custom, proprietary system power designs that add value to their end applications. The XRP7725 is available now in a RoHS compliant, green/halogen free 7x7mm TQFN package and is priced from $8.29 in 1000 piece quantities.