Dynamic Power Management Methodology for Distributed Vertical Power Delivery in High-Performance Computing Systems
For HPC system designers, this addresses efficiency degradation at medium-to-light loads in DVPD architectures, offering a practical method to improve energy efficiency without compromising regulation.
This work proposes a load-aware power system activation framework for distributed vertical power delivery in HPC systems, scaling active voltage regulators with load to reduce switching losses by 2x-3x and maintain ~87% efficiency across 5%-30% load while preserving ripple constraints.
Distributed vertical power delivery (DVPD) architectures employ multiple parallel voltage regulators (VRs) to meet the high-power and high current density demands of modern high performance computing (HPC) systems. While full parallel activation maximizes efficiency near peak load, medium to light load operation leads to efficiency degradation when all VRs remain active due to persistent switching and gate drive losses. This work proposes a load aware power system activation framework targeted at the medium to light load regime, in which the number of active VRs scales proportionally with instantaneous load power. A spatially informed selection strategy determines which VRs are activated from the available pool, aligning regulator placement with localized power demand. This locality aware activation minimizes lateral redistribution currents within the power plane and reduces conduction losses and voltage drops. Simulation results on a representative DVPD system demonstrate 2x to 3x switching loss reduction relative to conventional full-parallel light load operation, while sustaining an approximately 87% efficiency plateau across the 5% to 30% load range. Output ripple constraints are preserved, with inductor current ripple maintained within 6% and output voltage ripple within 2%, ensuring regulation integrity while improving overall conversion efficiency.