All modern computers rely on switch-mode power converters for their dc supply needs.
These power electronic supplies range from battery management converters for laptops to multiple redundant converters for advanced server clusters. Many of today's advances involve distributed power methods. Such a arrangement differs from the conventional bulk power converter architecture since it includes an extra power conversion stage, and because it uses an intermediate dc level for distribution. Power electronics is answering a new challenge for the development of extremely dynamic, low-voltage applications such as high performance microprocessor computer systems. In the next few years, we will begin to see a further advance to chip-level interconnects and power conversion.