California Micro Devices today announced the CM3103, the latest member of its industry-leading SmartOR™ power regulator family. The CM3103 is an ideal solution for network interface cards that use two power sources, a 5V main supply and a 3.3V auxiliary (standby) supply. The device integrates a 5V to 3.3V 400 mA regulator with a 3.3V Vaux switch, providing a constant 3.3V output when dynamically switching between the 5V main supply or 3.3 Vaux supply. The CM3103 is designed to provide a complete power management solution to enable Instantly Available PC (IAPC) functionality, such as "Wake-on-LAN", for advanced communications cards such as gigabit Ethernet and 802.11 wireless LAN. Most advanced PC communications cards, such as 10/100 Ethernet, gigabit Ethernet, and wireless LAN cards, are designed to support IAPC capability. IAPC allows a PC to be put into "sleep mode", and then wake from an external event, such as an MIS administrator remotely waking a user's PC over the network to upgrade software and perform a system backup. Implementing IAPC or Wake-on-LAN functionality requires special power regulator circuitry, because when a PC goes into sleep mode, it turns off its main 5V power rail to conserve power. In order to keep the networking card active when the main PC power rail goes down, the card must draw power from an alternate source. In most PCs, this is provided by one of two alternate "sleep" power rails - a 3.3V auxiliary rail and/or a 5V standby rail. California Micro Devices' SmartOR™ products are designed to provide a glitch-free transition between the main and standby rails when the PC is switching modes. By constantly monitoring the main power supply and dynamically switching between power supplies as needed, the CM3103 integrates a complete IAPC power management solution in a single chip. "The CM3103 and other SmartOR regulator products are ideal power management solutions for the rapidly emerging gigabit NIC and wireless LAN markets," said Joe Salvador, director of marketing for computing products at California Micro Devices. "Because networking chipsets can vary in the amount of power they require, we have developed an extensive family of SmartOR regulators, capable of supplying from 250 mA to 1.5A, meeting the needs of next-generation networking products as well as our traditional 10/100/1000 Ethernet and ADSL customers." According to IDC, 220 million PC Ethernet NIC and wireless LAN cards are expected to ship between 2003 and 2005, with Gigabit Ethernet and wireless LAN experiencing the strongest growth. The CM3103 SmartOR regulator, with a fully integrated Vaux switch, is capable of delivering up to 400mA continuously at 3.3V.

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