From February 25th to 29th, 2024, the annual International Power Electronics Application Exhibition (APEC) was successfully held in Long Beach, California, USA. APEC is jointly organized by the IEEE-Industrial Applications Society (IAS), the Power Electronics Society (PELS) and the American Power Supply Manufacturers Association (PSMA).
At this year's exhibition, many world-renowned power electronics companies and high-end R&D personnel in this field gathered here to exchange the latest technological progress and R&D results in the field of power electronics products and systems. Among them,China's leading power management and signal chain chip manufacturer - Xi Di Micro (**688173SH) brought a number of revolutionary server power supply power management chip solutions to the show, which attracted wide attention in the industry.
In the future, computing power will be the primary productive force
The energy consumption per unit of computing power will become one of the core competitiveness indicators of computing power
The wave of artificial intelligence (AI), which was started by Open AI, has now swept the world. When it comes to artificial intelligence, people are particularly familiar with its "ABC" three elements, namely algorithm, big data and computing. However, with the implementation of many design ideas, people have gradually discovered that there is another fourth factor that cannot be ignored that restricts AI applications, and that is energy consumption. Just as fuel costs account for 30%-40% of the company's total cost in the cost side of airlines, for AI, electricity costs are also the core cost in addition to the cost of AI chips.
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Open AI CEO Sam Altman said that artificial intelligence needs a breakthrough in energy in the future, because artificial intelligence will consume far more electricity than people expect, and future artificial intelligence systems will require a lot of energy.
A recent report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) also shows the challenges posed by artificial intelligence to energy consumption. The report shows that in 2022, data centers, cryptocurrencies and artificial intelligence accounted for about 2% of global electricity demand, with electricity consumption of 460TWh, which could rise to 1,050TWh by 2026, an increase equivalent to adding electricity demand from an additional country. The report also says that when fully integrated with artificial intelligence, Google searches could consume up to ten times more power. Similarly, the AI industry could consume ten times as much electricity in 2026 as it did last year.
In this context, how to reduce the energy consumption of AI systems has become a must-answer question for its industrial development. At present, there are two main ways to reduce the energy consumption of AI systems: one is to reduce the energy consumption of AI system core processors, and the other is to optimize the power management system and improve the efficiency of AI core processor power management. However, with the popularization of emerging applications such as AI, the efficiency of AC DC, DC DC, including multiphase power controllers and DRMOS power stage combinations in the traditional computing field has reached the ceiling, and the industry urgently needs more advanced power management solutions.
This also brings more opportunities to Xidiwei, which is deeply involved in the field of power management chips. The power transmission scheme of high-current DC DC products under development can be in 0The output of 75V at 50A provides better efficiency and achieves higher current output through parallel mode.
Some industry insiders pointed out that compared with the mature market plan, the size of the new products under development has been reduced by nearly 20%, but it has increased by nearly 24% efficiency. This means that customers using the solution can achieve a 20% increase in output current and a 23% reduction in operating power at the same solution size, which is a significant energy savings.
The R&D personnel of Xidiwei said that relying on the R&D strength accumulated by long-term deep cultivation of the market, the company's products are gradually moving towards 500-1000A according to the plan.
In addition, because AI servers and other equipment are mainly based on multi-channel high-current power supply solutions, they are also more sensitive to disturbances such as external circuit current, voltage, and temperature, and if a circuit fails, the entire system may face paralysis, which makes it necessary to have a more complete protection scheme to ensure the reliability of the system.
The high-current E-Fuses load switch chip and other series of products under development by Xidi Micro have outstanding performance in key indicators such as current limit accuracy and response time, which is conducive to protecting the safety of the system and promoting its reliable operation.
With its excellent R&D strength, the power management chip products under development are expected to achieve breakthroughs in energy efficiency, helping its customers achieve "cost reduction and efficiency increase" with smaller area, better efficiency, higher reliability and better flexibility.
The AI model empowers the consumer electronics industry
Power management chips ushered in the "sea of stars".
In recent years, mobile phones and devices that integrate AI applications have developed rapidly. According to IDC, a world-renowned technology market research organization, the AI of terminals has become an important direction for the development and implementation of AI. By 2026, nearly half of the terminal device processors in the Chinese market will be equipped with AI engine technology, and terminals with hardware AI engine processors are facing an exciting blowout development, especially in the traditional terminal hardware market such as smartphones, tablets, laptops, and desktop computers.
However, whether it is to achieve high-quality long-term image shooting or to use high-performance AI applications, continuous power support is required. For electronic devices, if the processor (CPU) and sensors (sensors) are compared to the "brain" and "five senses" respectively, then the power management chip is like the "heart" of electronic equipment, and its importance is self-evident.
Therefore, silicon anode lithium-ion batteries with higher energy storage density, faster charging speed and longer life have become the new favorite of the market. Recently, Xidiwei launched the HL7603, a DC-DC chip specially designed for silicon anode lithium-ion batteries, to meet the efficient battery management needs of AI mobile phones.
It is worth noting that no product has been found on the market that meets the equivalent technical requirements, which makes the HL7603 already a leader in the market. At the same time, the optimized performance of the product in other single-battery portable applications such as mobile and wearable devices, tablets and accessories will also provide a broad market space for its subsequent application scenarios.
In addition, the C&D Micro DC chip has entered the reference design of Qualcomm SXR1230P and SXR2230P in the United States very early, and the main application direction is AR and VR. For AI mobile phones, AR and VR and other intelligent electronic devices, Xidi Micro has customized a series of products such as HL7593 and HL7594 based on customer needs, and its step-down conversion chip has industry-leading load transient response performance, which can work at a fixed frequency while providing high power conversion efficiency, reducing the value and size of external inductor capacitance, thereby saving customers a lot of BOM cost.
According to the official website of Xidiwei, in the field of consumer electronics represented by mobile phones, the company's products have been widely used in the consumer electronic devices of Samsung, Xiaomi, Honor, OPPO, vivo, Transsion, TCL, Google, Logitech and other brand customers, covering a variety of mobile intelligent terminal devices including mid-to-high-end flagship models, which has prepared a solid foundation for its incremental creation.
As an explorer of advanced technology in the industry, Xidiwei has been driven by innovation and development, committed to the research and development of high-performance analog chips, in-depth research, innovation, and daring to be the first. Looking forward to the future, with a series of advantages such as leading R&D strength, rich product layout, and high-quality customer resources, the company is expected to bring more analog chip products with good performance such as low power consumption and high efficiency. It is expected that this local power management and signal chain chip manufacturer can shine on the world stage as a representative of domestic chips, and also make greater contributions to global scientific and technological progress and industrial development.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.