48-V Power Architecture for Next-Gen AI Processors

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AI processors demand the use of more power. One way to compensate is to redesign data centers with 48-V racks, though that has resulted in new power conversion challenges.

www.eetasia.com, May. 18, 2021 – 

The challenges of powering AI (artificial intelligence) processors lie in maintaining efficiency and enabling the highest quality of algorithm execution. AI processors need massive power, and a decrease in energy efficiency corresponds to an increase in losses in the entire power distribution network (PDN). In an interview with EE Times, Robert Gendron, P.E. corporate vice president of Vicor, highlighted how in data centers, the addition of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning has caused rack power to jump by over 200% to 20-kW range, leading to a re-evaluation of their PDNs using new 48-V solutions. The ability to redesign their 48-V racks and data center solutions has solved the high-current PDN problem but has resulted new challenges to power conversion.

Soaring demands on the PDN

Power delivery and power efficiency has become the largest concern in large-scale computing systems (figure 1). The industry has witnessed a dramatic increase in power consumed by processors with the advent of ASICs and GPUs processing complex AI functions. Rack power demands have also scaled proportionately to AI capability being utilized in large scale learning and inferencing application deployments.. In most cases, power delivery is now the limiting factor in computing performance as new CPUs look to consume ever-increasing currents. Optimal power delivery entails not just the distribution of power but also the efficiency, size, cost and thermal performance.

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