PMBus™: The Power System Standard

The Power Management Bus (PMBus) is an open
standard power-management protocol with a fully
defined command language that facilitates communication with
power converters and other devices in a power system. The
protocol is implemented over the industry-standard SMBus serial interface and enables programming, control, and real-time monitoring of compliant power conversion products. This flexible and highly versatile standard allows for communication between devices based on both analog and digital technologies, and provides true interoperability which will reduce design complexity and shorten time to market for power system designers. Pioneered by leading power supply and semiconductor companies, this open power system standard is maintained and promoted by the PMBus Implementers Forum (PMBus-IF), comprising 30+ adopters with the objective to provide support to, and facilitate adoption among, users.

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The PMBus-IF is part of the System Management Interface Forum (SMIF), Inc., a nonprofit industry standards group.

September 2008

The PMBus-IF is a sponsor of the Embedded Power Conference (EPC) in San Jose on 17–18 September.

The Embedded Power Conference is unlike your typical conference. The classes are not product pitches veiled as educational content. The 20+ courses that comprise the four tracks are taught by REAL engineers. These systems-level design engineers are facing increasing power-managment issues, like:

• How do designers deal with excessive heat generated by today’s high-powered systems?
• What role does software play in increasing efficiency?
• Do the latest digital power techniques ease the burden?

NEW COURSES ADDED! The 20+ courses are practical hands-on targeted content specifically for the embedded engineer focusing on:

• A power management conference for line powered systems—rack servers, bank servers, etc.
• It’s about watts, not microwatts.
• It’s about how to save money by enhancing power/energy density.
• It’s about discovering new solutions, not rehashing old protocols.

The technical program at the event will consist of four tracks:

• Software: using software algorithms to reduce power; digital power techniques
• Heat Management: cooling options; proper airflow; thermal modeling; temperature sensing
• System-Level and Backplane Supply: hot-swap; distributed power; supplying multiple voltages
• Circuit-Level Power: increase power efficiency; minimize switching losses; power-estimation

Find out more about the conference at http://cmp-egevents.com/web/pm.