CARLSBAD, Calif. – March 14, 2018 – MaxLinear, Inc. (NYSE:MXL), a leading provider of radio frequency (RF), analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits for the connected home, wired and wireless infrastructure, and industrial and multimarket applications, today announced that Raspberry Pi has selected MaxLinear’s MxL7704 Universal PMIC to power its latest single-board computer, the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+.

The MxL7704 enables the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ to be more compact and flexible. The PMIC’s I2C interface communicates with the computer’s on-board SoC for dynamic voltage scaling, status monitoring, sequencing control and PGOOD routing. These unique features provide the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ with more knowledge and control of power status and performance than previous systems using discrete power management solutions.

In addition to added power management flexibility and functionality, the MxL7704 also decreases the space and number of components required to power the computer’s SoC and surrounding ICs. A typical 4-channel analog power solution can utilize nearly 150 components. More components can be accommodated if soft-start, margining, or sequencing functionalities are implemented discretely. The MxL7704 supplies four power rails and a 100mA LDO, uses less than 80 components and includes many features not available in a basic analog solution. The IC is available in a compact, 5mm x 5mm QFN package.

The MxL7704 includes four synchronous step-down buck regulators that provide system, memory, I/O and core power from 1.5A to 4A. An on-board 100mA LDO provides clean 1.5V to 3.6V power for analog sub-systems. This PMIC utilizes a conditional sequencing state machine that is flexible enough to meet the requirements of virtually any processor.

"We worked closely with Raspberry Pi all the way from product definition to product release,” said Tuomas Hollman, MaxLinear Senior Director of Marketing, Power Management Products. "This very open collaboration resulted in the MxL7704, which provides 5 rails pre-optimized for ease of use in single-board computer systems, with a host of features that allow monitoring, telemetry and additional flexibility."

"Working closely with MaxLinear on the MxL7704 design has been great. Despite the challenging requirements and schedule, our close collaboration has been both a lot of fun and has resulted in a device that meets or exceeds our original engineering and commercial goals," said James Adams, Chief Operating Officer, Raspberry Pi. "The MxL7704 has allowed us to improve both the output currents and efficiency of the power rails on the new Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ as well as reduce the overall cost of the power-chain by removing the need for external sequencing and monitoring components (as compared to the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B)."

Source：http://www.exar.com/