New generations of energy measurement applications are driving innovation beyond the familiar utility meter. Smart plugs, smart appliances and power supplies for intense-use applications are enabling businesses, enterprises and even consumers to more accurately account for their energy usage. Armed with relevant data, consumers can now use that information to make smarter decisions to manage their energy consumption.
Since 1999, Cirrus Logic has focused solely on developing the best AFE products in the semiconductor industry, freeing designers to use the MCU of their choice in their design. This approach enables customers to optimize performance and price on every platform and provides flexibility across platforms to meet changing market requirements.
Types of Applications
Cirrus Logic AFEs enable the cost-effective deployment of high-accuracy smart meters that have directly contributed to the development of smart grids throughout the world.
To effectively monitor energy usage within the home, consumers need to understand how their appliances — washing machines, dryers, refrigerators, etc., — consume electricity. If consumers can, in effect, itemize the consumption, they are empowered with the knowledge to make informed decisions to better manage and optimize overall consumption habits or even perhaps remedy a malfunctioning device: Is the refrigerator consuming unusually large amounts of electricity? Perhaps the motor is breaking down and needs replacing? If my utility has reduced per-kilowatt-hour pricing at night, perhaps it’s less expensive to operate the dryer during that time?
Smart appliances are able to monitor and report energy consumption, perform advanced diagnostics based on energy use, automatically respond to utility signals for time-of-use rate changes and service malfunctioning devices. These functions provide cost savings to utilities as well as consumers.
Smart plugs and smart powerstrips were, until recent years, unknown consumer devices. These products are a rapidly growing segment of the energy measurement market that is being driven by consumers seeking real-time information about the electricity usage of household products: computers, displays, cable boxes, home theater systems, lamps, etc.
Via optimized remote on-off control, they enable a reduction in overall energy consumption. Some smart plugs/ smart strips use wireless communication, such as Zigbee or Wi-Fi, to connect to a USB hub that plugs into a home or office computer and compile information from measuring the various devices within the home. In addition, this hub can provide automation to reduce consumption by automatically turning off unused loads.
Low-cost AFE solutions from Cirrus Logic are critical components to meet the cost-sensitive and rapidly-changing requirements of the consumer market.
Smart power supply monitoring systems are designed for measuring and relaying energy usage information in high-performance systems such as servers, telecommunications racks, storage racks and PCs. Continuously increasing demand for computer resources such as cloud computing has resulted in exponential growth in the number of data center servers.
Cirrus Logic understands the challenge this presents to IT managers and equipment manufacturers, and through its portfolio of energy measurement ICs, it partners with them to create green data centers through energy efficient solutions such as power-managed servers.
Cirrus’ new CS548X/9X family features built-in calculations and very fast calibration, which speeds production cycles and enables customers to use low-cost manufacturing locations.
Cirrus’ components enable extremely accurate measurement of energy consumption, allowing data centers to optimize server utilization for efficiency and better return on investment.
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