Patent ID: 8120203

Claim:
A system comprising: a communication bus; and a plurality of POL (point-of-load) regulators coupled to the communication bus, and arranged in a current sharing configuration in which each respective POL regulator of the plurality of POL regulators has a respective output stage coupled to a common load and configured to generate a respective output current, wherein each respective POL regulator has a respective phase in the current sharing configuration, and wherein each respective POL regulator is configured to transmit and receive configuration information over the communication bus to and from other POL regulators of the plurality of POL regulators according to a bus communication protocol corresponding to the bus; wherein the configuration information comprises: identification information (ID) corresponding to the current sharing configuration; a first number indicative of how many POL regulators are present in the current sharing configuration; position information indicative of a relative position of the respective POL regulator with respect to other POL regulators in the current sharing configuration; and event command indicative of an activity of the plurality of POL regulators and corresponding to the respective POL regulator; wherein the plurality of POL regulators are configured to autonomously designate one of the plurality of POL regulators as a master device, without any of the plurality of POL regulators explicitly requesting to become a master on the communication bus; and wherein the plurality of POL regulators are configured to autonomously designate a new master device when the master device drops out of regulation as a result of one or more of: a fault occurs; the respective phase of the master device is dropped; or a communication interface of the master device to the communication bus fails.