News

Spec of Controller for 48V-to-Low-Voltage Power Stamps and Ice Lake Reference Design

March 18, 2019 by Scott McMahan

At the OCP Summit 2019, the Power Stamp Alliance (PSA), which is creating collaborative solutions for 48V-to-low-voltage on-board dc-dc power converters, published a new specification for a controller stamp.

PSA also announced a new reference design board for processors based on Intel's forthcoming next-generation 10nm CPU microarchitecture, code-named "Ice Lake". (See image above).

The alliance says that the new specification will improve the usability of satellite power stamps while reducing the component count for server manufacturers.

Controller stamp envelop

A controller stamp includes all the control functionalities of a main stamp; and in place of the power conversion, it adds bias voltage rails, thereby eliminating the need for additional dc-dc converters on the board to provide bias voltage rails.

A controller stamp built to the PSA specification provides all the bias voltage rails and control signals required by satellite stamps. It is suitable for servers, storage, and computing systems where space near the processor is limited.

The host system would only have to provide the 48V source rail for the controller and satellite stamps, removing the need for any primary and secondary bias voltages.

PSA 48V direct conversion dc-dc modules - or ‘power stamps' - primarily target advanced IT equipment and large data processing installations, many of which follow the principles of the Open Compute Project (OCP).

At the OCP Summit 2019, the Power Stamp Alliance was represented by its founding members, Artesyn Embedded Technologies, Bel Power Solutions, Flex, and STMicroelectronics.

Ice Lake Reference Design

According to PSA, engineers designing high-performance computers and servers used in large data centers, which are increasingly employing 48V rack-level power distribution systems, can now equal the performance and energy efficiency of these new processors with a flexible and efficient point-of-load power solution backed by a multi-vendor ecosystem.

The new reference design board for Intel's upcoming first volume 10nm processor lets design engineers evaluate the power stamp concept and specific point-of-load stamps from dc-dc vendors.

It can help to accelerate the project development cycle for new server designs and other equipment with the latest Intel® processors in a 48V rack environment.

This latest reference design board extends the Power Stamp Alliance's portfolio of reference design boards.

Availability

PSA reference design boards, power stamps and the GUI are available from PSA member representatives, who can be contacted via the Power Stamp Alliance website.

The Power Stamp Alliance was represented at the OCP Summit 2019 by its Founding Members, Artesyn Embedded Technologies, Bel Power Solutions, Flex, and STMicroelectronics.