Blade server computing systems must be highly configurable to meet a variety of application needs. As a result, blade servers are bought and sold primarily based upon a desired amount of processing power required to meet the needs of a specific task. Ironically, one of the least considered, and yet most important, components of a blade server is the power supply. After all, it can be easily argued that a system's reliability is only as good as the power supplied to it. Texas Instruments recently worked with a customer wanting to design a 1.5kW, highly-efficient, isolated power converter module for a blade server application. This customer relies heavily upon a well-known power module supplier for meeting his power needs. Power converter modules offer many advantages, but the foremost must be ease of implementation. However, there are several disadvantages with this approach, particularly in blade server applications. Server systems are designed to be highly-configurable in terms of available processing power.
展开▼
