“Intel Inside!” A high percentage of the
world’s personal computers use a Pentium microprocessor manufactured
by Intel Corp. Every computer uses a voltage regulator module (VRM)
to power the microprocessor. Each new generation of microprocessor operates
at lower voltage and higher current, and requires a fast response time
to switch the microprocessor from sleep to power mode and vice versa,
This switching of modes is necessary to conserve energy, as well as
to extend the operating time for any battery-operated equipment.
The problem was that existing VRMs were too slow to response the generation
(Pentium 4, and beyond) of microprocessor’s energy demand. The
solution was to use ever-larger numbers of capacitors to provide the
required energy-switching response, but this solution had become costly,
bulky, and increasingly unworkable.
To meet this challenge, the Center for Power Electronics System (CPES),
an engineering research center headquartered at Virginia Tech, established
a mini-consortium of companies with a keen interest in the development
of new VRMs for current and future generations of microprocessors. This
consortium consisted of 11 companies, including Intel, Hitachi, Intersil,
National Semiconductor, Texas Instruments, Power-one, HIPRO, Infineon,
Artesyn, TDK
and Delta Electronics. The CPES team developed a multi-phase VRM module
using an innovative approach based on paralleling multiple Buck mini-converter
cells.
This new multi-phase VRM has now been adopted by the entire industry
as standard practice. Every computer using Intel Pentium III or Pentium
4 microprocessors uses CPES’ multi-phase VRM approach as the power
management solution. This technology can also be fully integrated in
the microprocessor to provide superior performance for future microprocessors,
with ever-increasing speed and data processing capacity.
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