Power-One Licenses Digital IBA to C&D Technologies

Dec 15, 2004 4:18 PM
Edited by PETech Staff

Power-One Inc. and C&D Technologies have reached an agreement-in-principle to license Power-One’s Z-One Digital Intermediate Bus Architecture (IBA) technology. Under the terms of the agreement, C&D Technologies Power Electronics Division will be authorized to incorporate the “Z” technologies in the designs of its broad range of power conversion products.

C&D intends to design, manufacture and market Z-One Digital IBA Z-One compliant power systems, which include point-of-load converters that are virtually identical to Power-One’s Z-Series. This alliance is a major step in accelerating adoption of the Z-One technology. Customers will have an open source of supply, making the Z-One technology available to a broad array of customers in diverse markets.

Steve Goldman, Power-One’s chairman and CEO, commented, “With the recent acquisitions of Datel and the former Power Systems Division of Celestica Inc., C&D Technologies is now one of the major companies in the dc-dc power market. Its global customer base, leadership and vision are expected to help propel the Z-One power system into many different markets throughout the world, while allowing C&D to share in the benefits of the industry’s first open-architecture power management solution.”

This important early adoption and licensing by C&D Technologies demonstrates the compelling technological and reliability advantages of the Z-One architecture. The maXyz “Z” architecture and power management allows key power-system components of a system to communicate with each other in real-time, enabling monitoring, reporting and providing the capability to make power system changes “on-the-fly”. Customers can use the unique features and functionality of the power system to provide competitive advantages for their products.

Discussing the agreement, James D. Johnson, vice president and general manager of the C&D Technologies Power Electronics Division, said, “We are pleased to join with Power-One and be part of the open source Z-One architecture. Power system management is one of the most important functions in power design, and the Z-One power architecture provides significant advantages in this area. This technology is the only digitally integrated power system currently available and allows designers to achieve a new level of power system integration. The Z-One power system addresses both power conversion and power management, with key features including up to a potential 90% reduction in design time, components and PCB traces. Further, we intend to leverage the technology to develop custom dc-dc and ac-dc solutions for our customers.”

The Z-One Digital IBA technology uses the de facto standard I²C bus to communicate with the host computer or a Windows graphical user interface (GUI). Power-One believes that using a standard interface and licensing the technology will accelerate market acceptance of the Z-One architecture. Power-One’s open architecture strategy embraces multiple licensing arrangements for both power conversion modules, as well as its internally developed ICs, including one of the world’s first digital controllers (Digital PWM).

For more information, visit www.power-one.com.

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