Tracewell Power unveils single-slot 3U CompactPCI power card that delivers 400 watts

Dec. 1, 2001
Engineers at Tracewell Power Inc. in Westerville, Ohio, are introducing a single-slot 3U CompactPCI power supply called the TTX Series

By John Keller

WESTERVILLE, Ohio — Engineers at Tracewell Power Inc. in Westerville, Ohio, are introducing a single-slot 3U CompactPCI power supply called the TTX Series that delivers 400 watts of power and offers programmable options such as on-board diagnostics.

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Tracewell experts built their convection-cooled TTX 3U power board around what they a dual soft-switching bridge architecture with integrated Planar Magnetics, says Matt Tracewell, executive vice president of Tracewell Power parent Tracewell Systems.

The TTX will ship in January, and should gain interest among military and aerospace systems designers particularly for its ability to provide 700-watt redundant power in three 3U CompactPCI slots. By using custom connectors, systems designers can use the power boards also for VME systems, Tracewell says.

Also available will be a 6U version of the TTX power supply board that offers 700 watts per sot.

Although the TTX boards today are designed exclusively for convection-cooled systems, Tracewell says altering TTX designs for conduction cooling "should be reasonable and straightforward."

Tracewell engineers designed the TTX boards to accommodate next-generation systems such as switched fabrics that need more power than is typically available today, and that cannot give up additional card slots in their chassis, Tracewell says.

The TTX cards meet PICMG 2.11 R1.0 power interface specification, offer input voltages from 36 to 72 volts DC, have a digital method for load sharing of 5, 3.3, and 12-volt outputs within 10 percent over eight supplies, have hot-swappable metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETS) in place of O-ring diodes, and offer 500 kHz switching.

The card's main system central processor also can trend for look-ahead health capabilities such as detecting a rise in connector contact resistance, detecting faulty connectors, or verifying voltage percentages and load balancing, Tracewell says.

For more information contact Tracewell Power by phone at 614-847-9336, by fax at 614-847-9316, e-mail at [email protected], by post at 567 Enterprise Drive, Westerville, Ohio 43081, or on the World Wide Web at http://tracewellpower.com/.

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