Digital Power MCUs improve cloud efficiency

Digital infrastructure consumes large quantities of electrical energy, with data centres alone believed to consume around 1.3% of the world’s electricity or 286,000GWh per year. According to Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) calculations by the Uptime Institute, only 40% of this energy is used productively while the rest is lost, mostly as heat that must be dissipated by large and expensive cooling systems. Therefore, as the uptake of cloud services increases, it is vital to improve efficiency. By adjusting continuously as power demand fluctuates, digital control of computer power supplies can help boost data-centre efficiency to over 60%.

The 217ps high-resolution timer embedded in the STM32F334 enables superior precision. This in turn facilitates better power-supply efficiency while the asynchronous ultra-fast reaction time guarantees safe operation. Maximising the impact of digital power conversion to improve the Cloud’s efficiency, this could potentially reduce global electricity demand by around 280GWh each day. Based on a 72MHz ARM Cortex-M4 core with DSP and floating-point unit, the STM32F334 MCUs offer high computation capabilities and on-board CCM-SRAM to accelerate the execution of control loop or critical routines.

Michel Buffa, General Manager, Microcontroller Division, STMicroelectronics, commented: “Integrating features already proved in STM32 F3 devices used for digital motor drives and solar-inverters, the STM32F334 Digital Power line adds innovations such as the high-resolution timer, making these the industry’s most advanced microcontrollers for digital power applications. With built-in high-speed peripherals featuring versatile interconnects, multiple timer outputs, powerful CPU and communication peripherals, these devices greatly simplify digital control of complex power-supply topologies used in data servers and telecomms infrastructure, as well as in wireless charging points, lighting, welding and industrial power supplies.”