Fundamentals of Power Integrity for Computer Platforms and Systems

Foreword

The development of computing hardware operating at increasingly higher speeds and requiring more power continues at an inexorable pace. Successful development of computing systems requires careful design of hardware so that unintentional analog effects do not seriously compromise or degrade digital performance. This is particularly true with systems operating at high clock speeds and having high power requirements. There are three design arenas that are crucial to successful digital operation of hardware: signal integrity (designing to ensure sufficient integrity of the signal waveform) power integrity (designing to maintain sufficient quality of the power supplied to active devices), and electromagnetic interference/compatibility (EMI/EMC) where the design is tailored to ensure that radio frequency emissions from the digital system do not violate international regulatory limits that are in place to protect the public airwaves. Typically, there are substantial areas of overlap in these design disciplines and in the specific design of any digital hardware system. Each discipline has been studied at length, but the push of faster and higher power hardware requires continued development of the design technologies and techniques embodied in each arena.

This book primarily addresses power integrity and offers an introductory-to-intermediate view of the requirements and design ramifications based on physics fundamentals, rather than on detailed mathematical modeling. A value ...