- Feb 22, 2007
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I was talking with an engineer friend who works for one of the top power supply manufacturers, not going to say which one, it is big with enthusiast though. Anyway he told me about a new specification that is in the works. A 22VDC only power supply. No 3.3, 5, 12v outputs or multiple rails. Just one 22VDC output. The reason I was given was to simplify the power supply and internal wiring and to also make it easier for companies to design products without concern of what voltages and currents will be in use on the host system.
It might seem like 22VDC is an odd voltage to pick but 22VDC allows the use of higher power video cards and processors without increasing the wire count going to the cards. Most of the voltages in supplies now are used for legacy reasons. 5V was difficult to get from 12v years ago without complicated circuits or losing a lot of the power to linear regulators. Now though you can put a DC-DC converter circuit that is 98% efficient on a board in a space the size of a dime. Just about everything in the pc already does this making the supply of those extra voltages redundant. I can't think of anything in the pc that uses 5v except to convert it to something else. The standard in electronics now for chips is pretty much 1.8V and 3.3V so I can understand why they are phasing out the other voltages.
This is a few years off but I can't wait for the change it will make wiring inside the case much easier when everything has a universal connector. If intel can get lightpeak to be a common standard then everything in the pc , drives, video cards, external devices, all would have a common power and I/O connector that would be universal across all the devices.
It might seem like 22VDC is an odd voltage to pick but 22VDC allows the use of higher power video cards and processors without increasing the wire count going to the cards. Most of the voltages in supplies now are used for legacy reasons. 5V was difficult to get from 12v years ago without complicated circuits or losing a lot of the power to linear regulators. Now though you can put a DC-DC converter circuit that is 98% efficient on a board in a space the size of a dime. Just about everything in the pc already does this making the supply of those extra voltages redundant. I can't think of anything in the pc that uses 5v except to convert it to something else. The standard in electronics now for chips is pretty much 1.8V and 3.3V so I can understand why they are phasing out the other voltages.
This is a few years off but I can't wait for the change it will make wiring inside the case much easier when everything has a universal connector. If intel can get lightpeak to be a common standard then everything in the pc , drives, video cards, external devices, all would have a common power and I/O connector that would be universal across all the devices.
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