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The World's Tiniest Power Supply Unit
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."
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.
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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.
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2006/01/07/pico_psu/
http://www.epiacenter.com/modules.php?name=News&f
http://www.realtechnews.com/page/2/
And, of course: http://www.digg.com/hardware/World_s_smallest_pow
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.
" it will have to be used with an external AC-to-DC power converter"So this is just like all the other mini itx adaptors in that it requires an external brick to provide the juice. Who cares how small the internal part is?
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
> 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
IBM can incorporate this into the World's Smallest Computer.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
>>Very nice, very small, but only converts DC to DC.....
That's the point for many ITX boxes. Devices running on 12 Vdc are wonderful for vehicles. This is a much cleaner solution for the PC in my vehicle.
Yep, I never spell check.
More incorrect spellings can be found he
It takes dc and supplies dc. Doesn't that make it more of a converter?
And if so, it's no big deal. You can buy decent switched cap converters at Digi-key for a couple of bucks. I bought one not too long ago to step 14v down to 5 and supply 4 or so amps, and it was about the same size. The small footprint at 120w is fairly nifty, but otherwise I don't see the big deal.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
Never mind that! How many trees will I have to tap to power my server?
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
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."
Now I can build a single box cluster without needing multiple AC-DC power supplies. They can all be run off HDD connectors from the main PSU.
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.