C h a p t e r 3 | P o w e r P r o c e s s o r s a n d F P G A s
Depending on the application, isolation
of the power supply may be necessary.
Instead of powering the processor
directly with the power supply, isolation is
applied to an intermediate power rail, and
the load is run off that rail.
ADI's isoPower technology can integrate
isolated DC-DC converters with data
isolation into a single package, which
enables designers to implement isolation
in designs without the cost, size, power,
performance, and reliability constraints
found with optocouplers.
A major challenge for power management
is that process nodes have not kept pace
with processors and FPGAs; this will
have to improve to meet the demands of
future semiconductor devices across all
use case segments but especially data
centers, where architectures are under
heavy pressure to evolve to meet the
needs of AI workloads.
ADI offers validated reference designs
that simplify the integration of its high-
speed and precision data converters,
sensors, and power management
solutions with GPUs, systems on a chip,
and microprocessors. These designs
provide seamless connectivity and are
optimized to accelerate time to market
across various embedded platforms,
including automotive, consumer
electronics, data centers, healthcare, and
industrial applications.
Four key power management
elements for FPGAs include multi-
core voltage domains to reduce
switching losses, clock and power
gating to disable unused logic, a
lower IR drop PDN network, and
dynamic frequency scaling based
on real-time constraints."
Nihit Bhavsar
Hardware Development Engineer, Apple
20
Power Management: Efficiently Powering Processors, FPGAs, and Microcontrollers
