Introduction
Computing and communication systems are complex and comprise multiple subsystems. Each subsystem can have its own voltage domain, which is also known as a power rail. Each power rail needs to be powered up and monitored individually. This creates a need for power management. Because this activity is a health indicator of the system, it cannot be incorporated in any of the subsystems. For this reason, a dedicated chip is used.
Power management consists of the following parts:
- accurate and reliable voltage sequencing
- rapid power rail fault detection
- voltage and current monitoring of power rails to optimize power consumption
- real-time trimming for closed-loop control of power converters (voltage regulators)
- in-system margining
- fault/event logging in EEPROM
- communication with the host controller using I2C, SMBus, or PMBus
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