Since its introducion in 2005, the PMBus power management protocol has been widely adopted and is now the accepted standard for digital power management. The PMBus specification working group recently released Revision 1.3 which includes enhancements while maintaining backward compatibility with the older Revision 1.2 protocol. Two industry veterans will be presenting during the Industry Session 10 (IS10) “From the Board to the Datacenter” at the upcoming APEC Convention in Long Beach, CA.
Travis Summerlin of Texas Instruments will present System Power Simplification Utilizing PMBus Zone Capabilities and explain the new Zone Capabilities which simplify communication, control and monitoring of power conversion circuits in a large system. PMBus Revision 1.3 is based on the latest SMBus 3.0 hardware specification standard which provides for faster transactions. This industry presentation will focus on using the Zone Write and Zone Read capability to address all (or a subset thereof) a system’s devices, including any pages within those devices, in a single transaction.
Linear Technology’s Michael Jones will present PMBus on Linux: PMBus Support Options for the Linux Platform. This session will address the needs of power engineers from the perspective of design, debug and manufacturing. It will review the tradeoffs when choosing between Linux sysfs, /dev/i2c, and kernel drivers. Examples will be provided, along with comparisons using alternative “dongles” solutions to demonstrate the impact from a software and tool perspective.
About the presenters
Travis Summerlin is a Design Engineering Manager at Texas Instruments whose team develops point-of-load controllers and other power conversion semiconductors. He currently serves as the PMBus Specification Working Group Director. Travis has a BSEE and MSEE from Clemson University. Travis has more than 20 years’ experience in power IC development for mobile power management, high-power buck converters and printer electronics.
Michael Jones is an Application Engineer at Linear Technology, focused on Power System Management Products. Michael is responsible for PSM firmware reference designs for RTOS, Linux, and Linduino. Michael has a BSEE from California State University at Fresno, and an MBA from Denver University. Michael also writes for the “Digital Power System Design” blog on EDN.
About APEC
The Premier Event in Applied Power Electronics™, APEC focuses on the practical and applied aspects of the power electronics business. It is not just a designer’s conference, as APEC has something of interest for anyone involved in power electronics: including designers, salespersons, marketers, management, the press and financial community.
