New power delivery tech could save Google, Microsoft tens millions of dollars annually; Vertical PD up to 3KA could enable 10% reduction in losses

Crescendo vertical power delivery platform
(Image credit: Empower Semiconductor)

It’s well known that traditional power delivery systems are struggling to keep up with the energy requirements of advanced AI chips. Existing architectures rely on bulky power stages and large capacitor banks that take up significant space on the PCB. This setup leads to high power losses and limits efficiency, creating a barrier to supporting the latest AI workloads. This issue is particularly relevant for tech behemoths like Microsoft and Google, which are heavily investing in AI and data center infrastructure.

Empower Semiconductor has introduced a new Crescendo vertical power delivery platform to tackle these challenges by eliminating the need for capacitor banks and delivering energy directly to AI chips. By placing the PD system directly under the processor, power losses associated with traditional designs are reduced and overall efficiency improved.

The new platform uses the company’s proprietary FinFast technology to provide scalable, on-demand power delivery for up to 3,000A power domains, making it well-suited for the growing demands of modern data centers.

Just the beginning

“AI’s accelerating power requirements far outpaces the capability of today’s lateral power solutions, both in scale and speed. In developing the Crescendo platform, Empower enables generations of new AI processors to hit their performance goals while running efficiently and cool,” said Tim Phillips, founder and CEO of Empower Semiconductor.

“With this introduction we are enabling efficient true vertical power delivery for our customers – and this is just the beginning, as the Crescendo platform will allow the integration of power delivery directly into the processor at total power supply densities exceeding 5A/mm2, setting Empower apart as the technology leader.”

Empower says its technology offers 5x higher power density and over 10% reduction in power delivery losses, cutting more than 8MW of power loss in data centers with 100,000 CPUs.

More from TechRadar Pro

Wayne Williams
Editor

Wayne Williams is a freelancer writing news for TechRadar Pro. He has been writing about computers, technology, and the web for 30 years. In that time he wrote for most of the UK’s PC magazines, and launched, edited and published a number of them too.

Read more
Racks of servers inside a data center.
The AI data center dilemma: Upgrade or start from scratch
Half man, half AI.
Yet another tech startup wants to topple Nvidia with 'orders of magnitude' better energy efficiency; Sagence AI bets on analog in-memory compute to deliver 666K tokens/s on Llama2-70B
A person standing in front of a rack of servers inside a data center
Changing a few lines of code in Linux could apparently save hyperscalers billions, research claims, but I am not convinced
Racks of servers inside a data center.
Cooling high-density data centers with coolant distribution units
Half man, half AI.
AI energy efficiency monitoring ranks low among enterprise users, survey by inference hardware specialists finds
A Corsair One i500 on a desk
Microsoft backed a tiny hardware startup that just launched its first AI processor that does inference without GPU or expensive HBM memory and a key Nvidia partner is collaborating with it
Latest in Pro
A business woman looking at AI on a transparent screen
Businesses are facing an "AI Divide" - which could be the difference between success and failure
Apple Vision Pro with Dassault Systèmes 3DEXPERIENCE platform
Dassault Systèmes teams up with Apple to use Vision Pro headsets to bring spatial CAD to life
A graphic showing fleet tracking locations over a city.
Lost & Found tracking site hit by major data breach - over 800,000 could be affected
US President Donald Trump speaks to the press as he signs an executive order to create a US sovereign wealth fund, in the Oval Office of the White House on February 3, 2025, in Washington, DC.
US set to pause cyber-offensive operations against Russia - but CISA says it won't stop
Web DDoS attacks see major surge as AI allows more powerful attacks
Polish space agency says it was hit by a cyberattack
Latest in News
Google Gemini iPhone Lock Screen
You can now access Gemini from your iPhone's lock screen
Michelle, Keats, and Doctor Amherst looking unimpressed and worried in The Electric State
Netflix drops trailer for The Electric State, and I'm getting serious District 9 vibes
YouTube TV
YouTube TV might be planning a big Netflix update that puts the best streaming services first
Google Pixel 9 Pro
Here are the 7 best Pixel 9 and Pixel Watch 3 features landing in March’s Pixel Feature Drop
Bang & Olufsen Beogram 4000C Saint Laurent Rive Droite Edition
Bang & Olufsen's latest reworked turntable is a masterpiece of retro revival, in a breathtaking wooden presentation box
Apple Watch Series 10
Apple unveils new Apple Watch bands – here's what's in the Spring 2025 collection