Power Lattice, an advanced technology fabless company, has introduced a new series of smart chiplets. These chiplets hold the promise to drastically cut down power consumption in processors. Combined with new chiplets that bring up to a 50 percent decrease in power requirements, this notably improves efficiency for operators. Power Lattice emerged in first place in the voltage regulation competition. They do this through high-voltage regulator miniaturization and repackaging.
The chiplets use a new magnetic alloy to allow for smooth inductor operation at these high frequencies. This breakthrough discovery enables Power Lattice’s chiplets to work at frequencies as much as one hundred times greater than conventional alternatives. In an unusual design twist, the design moves the voltage conversion process significantly closer to the processors themselves. With this change, it greatly decreases the distance that high can pass. This innovation leads to lower power loss and enhanced performance per watt.
Peng Zou, a delegation member from Power Lattice, focused on how their approach was different than competitors such as Intel. He was excited to announce that Power Lattice’s chiplets are small, under 1/20th the footprint of today’s voltage regulators. At just 100 micrometers thick—about the diameter of a human hair—they’re pretty remarkable themselves, but their secret sauce is a tremendous enhancement in efficiency.
Innovative Design and Performance
Power Lattice’s new or native chiplets have been carefully engineered to maximize the performance across the landscape and greatly reduce the power. The ability to decrease power requirements by as much as 50 percent comes from perfecting the process of voltage conversion. Power Lattice utilizes a unique magnetic alloy for its inductors. This breakthrough lets the inductors run at very high frequencies with extreme efficiency.
The company’s design philosophy on sharing hardware resources fuses nicely with their existing processors. This kind of smart integration can help make our entire energy use dramatically more efficient. By relocating the voltage conversion process to be as close as possible with the processors, Power Lattice is minimizing the travel distance for high currents. This is arguably the most important element as it is the most directly linked to reduced power loss.
“The closer you get to the processor, the less distance that the high current has to travel, and thus we can reduce the power loss,” – Hanh-Phuc Le
Thanks to this pioneering architecture, Power Lattice’s chiplets are providing double the performance per watt than existing solutions. And performance increases dramatically with miniaturization. It’s opening new possibilities for further miniaturization in today’s increasingly crowded electronic devices.
Market Differentiation and Competitive Landscape
Yet Power Lattice’s approach to chiplet development is what completely separates them from major industry players like Intel. According to Zou, their solution addresses a highly important market need in the space of power delivery. This challenge has become more pronounced in today’s market.
“From a market position perspective, we are quite a bit different,” – Zou
As the burgeoning chiplet implementation trend represents, semiconductor manufacturing is moving toward heterogeneous integration. Power Lattice’s innovations have the potential to upend centuries of conventional power supply management business as usual. Many companies today rely exclusively on their proprietary components to guarantee system reliability.
“Qualcomm, for example, can sell their processor chip and the vast majority of their customers also have to buy their proprietary Qualcomm power supply management chip because otherwise they would say, ‘We don’t guarantee the reliable operation of the whole system,’” – Le
Startups such as Power Lattice are capitalizing on the proprietary technology crutch. They’re pushing back with smart, competitive alternatives that take the big guys in the industry down a notch.
Future Implications and Industry Impact
Power Lattice’s innovations have extended well beyond increasing efficiency. They signal a significant innovation in addressing the ever-growing power regulation hurdles the computing industry is experiencing. This enormous increase in energy efficiency and performance potential promises to benefit every industry and field that depends on high-performance computing.
Zou pointed out how this is a key trending topic that has started to shape the overall industry.
“This has almost become a show-stopping issue today,” – Zou
Power Lattice chips address these challenges and more with their powerful new chiplets. This strategy helps nationally improve energy efficiency while solidifying the company’s status as a key player in the highly competitive semiconductor industry.
As technology further advances, Power Lattice’s innovations have the ability to recast the way power management is considered in every design and on every platform. The adoption of their chiplets may lead to widespread changes in design and functionality for processors and other electronic systems.