As today’s cars are putting more and more demands on their electrical power systems, they must achieve high efficiency to reduce heat dissipation and cut electricity consumption. At the same time, they need to be small enough to fit wherever needed, with suitable performance and flexibility.
Today’s high-speed interconnects achieve ever-higher data rates into the Gbps range. However, this introduces more design complexity.
We are surrounded by sophisticated electronic components; in our homes, cars, and gadgets. But these devices are only useful when they control or respond to something in the real world.
Even when not taking into account the electrification of the drivetrain, the number of electric motors in the average car is increasing significantly.
Most of us seem to end up with a drawer filled with old chargers, either for mobile phones, notebook PCs, or battery-powered home appliances and power tools.
Today’s cars are computers on wheels: full of complex electronics which all must be powered. Nowadays, modern cars include at least 150 electronic control units (ECUs).
The accessibility of audio applications means that music and smart technology is everywhere: commuters listen to music on their earbuds while traveling and a home’s smart speakers make it easy to talk to AI-enabled personal assistants in any room.
Today’s vehicles are adding more and more electronic components, increasing the overall vehicle cost and exacerbating the growing challenge of protecting components against electrical damage while maintaining reliability.
The PCI Express® (or PCIe®) architecture has become the preferred interconnect standard in server and storage applications. The growing variety of performance-oriented computing demands in cloud infrastructure, edge devices, telecom networks, 5G infrastructure, embedded systems, and mobile applications also rely on PCIe.
Markets of all types – such as consumer, industrial, and medical – demand smaller, slimmer devices that deliver faster performance, more features, and extra flexibility. The latest USB Type-C® (or USB-C®) interface and Power Delivery (USB PD) specifications are part of the industry’s response to these demands.
