The power system challenge-understanding the total picture

The task of designing an optimal power system for a server system is very challenging. For a power supply vendor, understanding the specific application is very critical to recommend alternate power system architectures that are more suitable than what the customer has in mind. The paper covers various issues and trade off for designing a power system specifically for server applications. AC redundancy, AC/DC redundancy and DC/DC redundancy issues are described for the systems and an effort is made to highlight some very important issues concerning power system availability, imbedded or plug-in regulators, and centralized power systems versus distributed power architectures. The availability, the flexibility and the cost trade off are covered using specific examples. Ultimately, it is the power system designer´s responsibility to have in-depth knowledge of the server system and future technology trends if a cost effective power system has to be designed.