Article: Power Delivery in a Modern Processor
By: Dan Fay (daniel.fay.delete@this.gmail.com), May 12, 2020 9:35 am
Room: Moderated Discussions
> Linear voltage regulators (eg, an LDO) are used to produce a cleaner power rail with less ripple
> compared to switching regulators. When a really clean voltage rail is required, it's not uncommon
> to have a switching power supply (in this case, the motherboard VRM) that gets "close" to the
> desired voltage followed by a linear regulator (the on-die LDO) to smooth it out.
>
> The downside is that, indeed, this burns some extra power, but there's always
> power loss in power supply design, so it's not necessarily a bad trade-off.
>
> Jason
Do you know what the dropout voltage is for the on-die LDO(s)?
> compared to switching regulators. When a really clean voltage rail is required, it's not uncommon
> to have a switching power supply (in this case, the motherboard VRM) that gets "close" to the
> desired voltage followed by a linear regulator (the on-die LDO) to smooth it out.
>
> The downside is that, indeed, this burns some extra power, but there's always
> power loss in power supply design, so it's not necessarily a bad trade-off.
>
> Jason
Do you know what the dropout voltage is for the on-die LDO(s)?