Fundamentals of Power Integrity for Computer Platforms and Systems

Chapter 2Introduction to Platform Power Conversion

Power integrity, as was discussed in Chapter 1, is a broad, and encompassing discipline. A key subject area is power conversion; this area is shown as the left-most block in Figure 1.1. Power conversion, even when focused on DC-to-DC conversion alone, is a complex and expansive subject, and to do it justice requires many years of study. This is why there are many excellent texts on the subject—some are recommended in the bibliography at the end of this chapter [1]. Thus, an in-depth coverage of power conversion—even limited to computer platforms—is well beyond the scope of this book.

Yet an introduction to this subject is important to those who study power integrity. Primarily, understanding the boundaries of the source is critical to the power integrity engineer's work. Without a basic understanding of the power converter behavior, it is impossible to follow the efficacy of the link in the frequency or time domain. Moreover, as this text moves to other subjects, the reader will be required to develop a basic knowledge base of the workings of the voltage regulator, and this need will become particularly evident when the subjects of modeling and noise enter the discussions. Additionally, it is necessary for the power integrity engineer to have a broader knowledge of the platform's inner workings, than just that of the distribution between the load and source. The PI engineer is often required to understand how the source functions ...