Controller Powers AMD's Turion Mobile CPU

Oct 11, 2006 1:56 PM

Intersil's two-phase core controller with embedded gate drivers, the ISL6264, is designed to power AMD’s 64-bit Turion mobile CPUs. The device offers improved transient response and load line accuracy enabled by Intersil’s R³ (Robust Ripple Regulator) Technology.

The controller uses post-package trimming to remove all errors associated with assembly and offers 0.5% accuracy across the entire temperate range. The device uses two interleaved channels to double the output voltage ripple frequency, reducing output voltage ripple amplitude with fewer components, lower component cost, reduced power dissipation and smaller real estate area.

To boost battery life, Intersil’s ISL6264 supports PSI_L by automatically enabling different operation modes. At heavy load operation in the active mode, the controller commands the two-phase continuous conduction mode (CCM) operation. While the PSI_L is asserted during the deeper sleep mode or the light load of active mode, the device smoothly disables one phase and operates in a one-phase diode emulation mode (DE) to maximize the efficiency at light load. A 6-bit digital-to-analog converter (DAC) allows dynamic adjustment of the core output voltage from 0.375 V to 1.55 V.

A unity-gain differential amplifier is provided for remote CPU die sensing. This allows the voltage on the CPU die to be accurately measured and regulated per AMD mobile CPU specifications. Current sensing can be realized using either lossless inductor DCR sensing or precision resistor sensing. A single NTC thermistor network thermally compensates the gain and the time constant of the DCR variations.

The ISL6264 is available now in a 40-lead QFN package and is priced at $3.80 in 1,000-unity quantities. Evaluation boards are also available for the ISL6264.