Potentia Semiconductor Corp. (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) has upgraded its PowerCenter Designer software. The enhanced Version 4.0 software now supports the company's complete range of second-generation devices, including its latest six-rail, secondary-side, power system controllers. Available as a free download from the Potentia website, the PowerCenter Designer V4.0 offers a complete design flow for the configuration of distributed power systems. In a point-and-click software environment, the topology, sequence, parameter, GPIO, and margining configuration screens aim to substantially reduce design time.
The new chips supported by PowerCenter Designer V4.0 include the PS-2606 and the soon-to-be-announced PS-2607 power system controller ICs. Providing comprehensive voltage monitoring and control of up to six point-of-load converters and an intermediate bus, the ICs offer the option of an isolated data link to companion primary-side devices. One of the enhancements introduced by the Version 4.0 software is full support for negative voltage rails. Once a negative value has been specified, the PowerCenter Designer automatically sets all the necessary controller device registers for negative rail management.
A more comprehensive strategy has also been implemented for configuration error handling. The latest PowerCenter Designer software disallows power system configurations that it determines are likely to result in undesirable long-term effects in complex power architectures.