Power management chip debuts with on-chip PMBus support

National is aiming to provide designers of blade servers, storage networking systems, routers/switches and modular subsystems with a product that improves system reliability and reduces operating expenses in data centers.

National's LM25066 integrates high-performance monitoring, protection and control blocks that precisely control and manage the electrical operating conditions of each blade in the chassis. It also provides accurate monitoring of critical system power consumption and fault conditions.

The LM25066 continuously supplies the system management host with real-time power, voltage, current, temperature and fault data for each blade subsystem. The LM25066's system management bus (SMBus) communications interface delivers this data using the PMBus protocol. The host's system diagnostic and optimization routines use the data to increase system reliability and minimize the data center's total power consumption.

The LM25066 features a voltage input range of 2.9V to 17V and a selectable 25 mV/50 mV current limit threshold for addressing a wide range of intermediate bus voltages and load currents. The LM25066 monitoring block measures both current and voltage at 1,000 times per second with a current measurement accuracy of three percent over the full temperature range of -40°C to 125° C. Additionally, its simultaneous sampling of current and voltage provides a true power measurement of the server blade power consumption. The monitoring block also captures the peak current and peak power and computes the average of subsystem operating parameters (Vin, Iin, Pin and Vout).

Pricing: $5.95 each in 1,000-unit quantities.
Availability: Sampling now with full production volumes expected in the second quarter of 2010.
Datasheet: click here.

National Semiconductor, www.national.com