SOCs with an on-die DC-DC converter

[japlytic]

You may know this, but all Intel Core CPUs from the fourth generation (Haswell) onwards have an on-die DC-DC converter, and a System on Chip (SOC) which has such is the Broadcom BCM2835 (and certain other SOCs used in the Raspberry Pi) - the only external components for the DC-DC converter are inductor(s) and filter capacitor(s) and in some cases, feedback voltage resistor divider(s).

Do you know of any other SOCs which have an on-die DC-DC converter?

[stj]

Re: SOCs with an on-die DC-DC converter

great, more shit to fail.
i'm sick of intel assholes putting shit on-die that is known to fail
usb interfaces, sata resistors, dvi/hdmi drivers, and now this.
i know people with desk-high stacks of i5 laptop boards that cant be fixed because the cpu's are all fucked.
breaking your usb or monitor connector shouldnt trash the cpu - unless it's designed in israel it seems!

[eccerr0r]

Re: SOCs with an on-die DC-DC converter

integration for size reduction and price costs, who asked for smaller cheaper computers?

[Dan81]

Re: SOCs with an on-die DC-DC converter

I wonder if this isn't the cause that 1155, 1150 and newer ASUS mainboards won't turn on with a CPU?

[eccerr0r]

Re: SOCs with an on-die DC-DC converter

I think we're getting a bit confused in this thread...

Technically speaking putting on-die DC-DC converters does not increase the amount of shit to fail because the amount of electronics is still the same, just that the converter is now on die. So, it does make bigger FRUs so repairing things is more expensive when they do fail, so basically it's killing people who want to repair items - so only complainers should be those who want to make money off of repairs or those who want to save the environment from e-waste.

And I'm not sure above the above comment: motherboards won't boot anyway without a CPU, and if you insert a CPU and cause a motherboard to no longer turn on, that motherboard is probably bad...

[stj]

Re: SOCs with an on-die DC-DC converter

intelligent designers put parts that fail because of external means in the design as seperate items.
scumbags put them into the most expensive and hard to replace part to make you throw the item away.
simple.

do you think it's wise to put a $200 component at risk of being destroyed by a bad connector or ceramic cap,?
i think it's pure evil and intentional by people who should be flogged in public!

[Dan81]

Re: SOCs with an on-die DC-DC converter

nvm, found my answer on Tom's Hardware with someone who had a bad 1150 CPU. ASUS' mainboards of the Sandy/Ivy/Haswell era will simply not turn on without a CPU.

Guess it's just a matter of finding a retention bracket for 115x, as I got the board for around $2 with no bracket whatsoever, as well as a bunch of bent LGA pins.

I'm confident the pins shouldn't short anymore (not my first rodeo with 115x bent pins - I have had a Gigabyte H55M-USB3 w/ bent pins that worked just fine once I got them as straightened out as possible) but I really had no idea the newer 1155/1150 (and possibly 1151 and 1200?) ASUS mobos will NOT turn on at all without a CPU.

TL;DR Mobo just twitches but VRMs check out fine and no shorts on 12v. ASUS just put some sort of protection that won't let you turn on the mobo without a CPU. I remember reading about this long ago but forgot it until now.

AMD boards surprisingly don't have this thing - they power on without a CPU, but do nothing else (obviously.)

[eccerr0r]

Re: SOCs with an on-die DC-DC converter

intelligent designers put parts that fail because of external means in the design as seperate items.
scumbags put them into the most expensive and hard to replace part to make you throw the item away.
simple.

do you think it's wise to put a $200 component at risk of being destroyed by a bad connector or ceramic cap,?
i think it's pure evil and intentional by people who should be flogged in public!

again, someone wanted a smaller, cheaper computer.

[stj]

Re: SOCs with an on-die DC-DC converter

let them buy a fucking tablet and install sailfish then.

[piernov]

Re: SOCs with an on-die DC-DC converter

You may know this, but all Intel Core CPUs from the fourth generation (Haswell) onwards have an on-die DC-DC converter

4th, 5th, 10th and 11th gen do have what they call an FIVR. For other generations the power delivery isn't as integrated into the CPU.
It's still possible that there are some auxiliary power rails created on-die with LDOs for example that we do not know of.

Btw this is a very common technique on low-power microcontrollers, either with LDO or buck converter. Of course it's better integration but this can also be done for power efficiency reasons.
If the power rail is created specifically for one part of the integrated circuit and not used outside of it, it makes sense to handle it on-die.

As a side note, modern Intel CPU already die almost all the time when something bad happens on one of the external power rail, so it's not like having them on-die makes a difference in terms of reliability and repairability…