Summit supply controller monitors up to six channels

Summit Microelectronics has announced that it is sampling the SMS64 power supply monitor/controller that allows system designers to determine the timing, on-off order, and overvoltage and undervoltage thresholds of as many as six system power supply channels used in point-of-load applications.

The 48-pin TQFP device is suitable for controlling the multiple core and I/O power rails required by advanced processors, DSPs, FPGAs and ASICs. These devices often require specific power-on and power-off sequences for their various core and I/O voltages in order to prevent latch-up or damage to the part.

In the typical point-of-load architecture, the required lower voltages (2.5, 2, 1.8, 1.5, and 1.2V) are derived from an intermediate system supply voltage of 3.3V, 5V, or 12V using low-cost dc/dc converters or LDO regulators.

The SMS64 has been designed to interface directly with these devices and, in addition, provides high-side drive outputs to directly drive MOSFETs.

It has six power-supply managers that can be programmed to act independently or in combination with the other managers. Each manager can be assigned any sequence position for power-on sequencing. Timing delays are also programmable from 1.5ms to 0.2s.

The power supply managers are also designed to monitor power threshold voltages and ensure that they remain within a defined range. The monitored voltage threshold can be programmed in 20mV increments between 0.9V and 6V.

When an application circuit moves into an undervoltage or overvoltage condition, the SMS64 can be programmed to signal a fault condition or an interrupt request. The trigger sources include multiple combinations of undervoltage/overvoltage conditions, and programmable watchdog and long-dog timers.

In addition, the controller can be programmed to immediately initiate power-off operations if a fault is detected.

Programming and configuration can be done via an industry-standard I2C-bus, two-wire serial data interface. The bus also interfaces the host to the device's nonvolatile memory block and the programmable configuration registers.

The company is also offering the SMX3200 design kit to speed design and product development using the SMS64. It includes a menu-driven Windows OS GUI and the necessary hardware to interface to the parallel port of a laptop or PC.

The SMS64 is priced at $7.95 each in quantities of 10,000 devices.