Dragon32 Power-Supply

From: Dwight K. Elvey <dwight.elvey_at_amd.com>
Date: Wed Nov 24 11:53:31 2004

>From: "John Honniball" <coredump_at_gifford.co.uk>
>
>Jules Richardson wrote:
>> In the six or so Atoms that have passed through my hands though I've
>> never had one with the original supply, so I can't confirm that :) (All
>> of mine have either been kits - and I assume the PSU was optional - or
>> previous owners have bypassed the regulators and used a more capable
>> supply)
>
>Ah, that was a standard modification. The Atom uses two 7805
>regulators in parallel, which is not a good way to turn two
>1A regulators into a 2A PSU. In practice, one regulator
>(depending on the voltage tolerances of the parts) takes
>nearly all the load, while the other regulator just sits
>there. So, many Atom users who expanded their machines
>also bypassed the regulators and added a proper external
>supply.
>
>I'll check my boxed Atom in the loft sometime to see what
>brick it's got.
>
Hi
 Although, not particularly good practice, as long as the
power dissipation is kept down, this is a design within specifications
of the part. They have built in current limit and are suppose
to be able to handle continuous loads in current limit.
This means that they can be paralleled.
 I once talked with some application engineers at National
about this type of operation.
Dwight
Received on Wed Nov 24 2004 - 11:53:31 GMT