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The World's Tiniest Power Supply Unit

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the case-modders-rejoice dept.

An anonymous reader writes "This year at CES members of the press got to grab a glimpse of the world's tiniest power supply. Well actually it is the world's tiniest 12V snap-in ATX DC-to-DC power supply, but you get the idea. This unit produces 120W of power and is about the size of two AA batteries. It is specifically designed for use with Mini-ITX motherboards, but can be used in many other applications."

5 of 176 comments (clear)

  1. Will this work off of a car 12V? Some other links by dada21 · · Score: 3, Informative

    For years I worked on a viable PC-for-the-car. This is before Microsoft had their operating system (failure) for car stereos, and before the CarPC was even a thought by the designer. My biggest problem was finding a cheap, small and capable 12DC-DC power supply. Even a few years ago they were basically impossible to find.

    I'm glad to see there is now a market for these power supplies (although I'm sure this isn't for car applications). I wonder how efficient it is -- and how much heat it gives off. The article was a bit...sparse.

    I miss my old car PC -- 8 years ago it could do so much more than anything else I've seen. Considering how much time I wasted, I wish I kept all the software and code.

    A couple more links to the picoPSU:

    http://www.mini-box.com/s.nl/sc.8/category.13/it.A /id.417/.f

    http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2006/01/07/pico_psu/

    http://www.epiacenter.com/modules.php?name=News&fi le=article&sid=718

    http://www.realtechnews.com/page/2/

    And, of course: http://www.digg.com/hardware/World_s_smallest_powe r_supply_-_the_picoPSU

  2. $50 + S&H Each & Manual Link by eldavojohn · · Score: 5, Informative

    They sell them here for $50 if you're interested in putting one in your mod or computer.

    You may also be interested in the pdf guide for the picoPSU-120.

    --
    My work here is dung.
  3. Re:Will this work off of a car 12V? Some other lin by craigmarshall · · Score: 4, Informative

    > I'm glad to see there is now a market for these power
    > supplies (although I'm sure this isn't for car applications).
    > I wonder how efficient it is -- and how much heat it gives
    > off. The article was a bit...sparse.

    From the article:

    "The pico-PSU boasts an over 96% efficiency rating"

    and:

    "No enclosure or cooling is needed."

    Craig

  4. Smallest by Nom+du+Keyboard · · Score: 3, Informative
    This unit produces 120W of power

    That wouldn't even power my video card.

    --
    "It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
  5. Re:Will this work off of a car 12V? Some other lin by Brain_Recall · · Score: 4, Informative
    My guess this will not be well suited for automotive applications. Car alternators actually produce more like 13.8 volts while running, since lead-acid batteries require a higher voltage source to charge. Also, automotive electrical systems can swing wildly when kicking on power-draining devices such as headlights and air conditioners (the auto industry is starting to setup a 40V spec to help power these systems while keeping the voltage stable).

    I believe current auto computers have a hefty filtering package to work under these varying conditions. The Pico-PSU doesn't seem to have enough filtering to be directly plugged in. However, a smaller external voltage regulator to handle the spikes/drops would probably do wonders for it.