PWM controller IC offers 'highest performance-to-price ratio'

Intersil Corp. announced a two-phase PWM controller IC that provides a precision voltage regulation system for advanced microprocessors.

By reducing the number of external parts, the ISL6568 provides the highest performance at the lowest BOM cost in the smallest PCB area, thus yielding the highest performance-to-price ratio of any Intel and AMD CPU core voltage regulator available, said the company. The integration of power MOSFET drivers into the controller IC marks a departure from the separate PWM controller and driver configuration of previous multiphase product families.

According to Intersil, a unique feature of the ISL6568 is the use of both DCR and rDS(ON) current sensing. Load line voltage positioning (droop) and over-current protection are accomplished through continuous inductor DCR current sensing, while rDS(ON) current sensing is used for accurate channel-current balance.

The new controller IC includes programmable VID (voltage identification) codes that greatly simplify the customers' logistics, as the ISL6568 becomes a single-chip solution on Intel Celeron and P4 processors (5xx, 6xx and Extreme Edition), and AMD Athlon XP, Athlon64 2K, 3K and 4K, and Opteron 100, 200, and 800-series platforms. The Dynamic VID technology allows seamless on-the-fly voltage changes utilizing the VID bus, and the offset pin allows accurate voltage offset settings that are independent of VID bus setting.

The ISL6568 includes a set of over-voltage, under-voltage and over-current protection. When an over-voltage situation is sensed, the converter turns the lower MOSFETs on to clamp the rising output voltage and protect the microprocessor. The over-current protection level is set through a single external resistor. The IC also includes protection against an open circuit on the remote sensing inputs.

The ISL6568 is available in standard lead finish and Pb-free, 32-lead 5-by-5mm QFN packages. It supports either commercial or industrial temperature ranges, with a suggested price of $1.45 each in 10,000-piece orders.