Switched-mode power supply

A switched-mode

power

supply (switching-mode

power

supply, switch-mode

power

supply, switched power supply, SMPS, or switcher) is an electronic power supply that incorporates
a switching regulator to convert electrical power efficiently.
Like other power supplies, an SMPS transfers power from a DC or AC source (often mains power), to DC
loads, such as a personal computer, while converting voltage and current characteristics. Unlike a linear
power supply, the pass transistor of a switching-mode supply continually switches between lowdissipation, full-on and full-off states, and spends very little time in the high dissipation transitions, which
minimizes wasted energy. Ideally, a switched-mode power supply dissipates no power.
Voltage regulation is achieved by varying the ratio of on-to-off time. In contrast, a linear power supply
regulates the output voltage by continually dissipating power in the pass transistor. This higher power
conversion efficiency is an important advantage of a switched-mode power supply. Switched-mode power
supplies may also be substantially smaller and lighter than a linear supply due to the smaller transformer
size and weight.
Switching regulators are used as replacements for linear regulators when higher efficiency, smaller size or
lighter weight are required. They are, however, more complicated; their switching currents can cause
electrical noise problems if not carefully suppressed, and simple designs may have a poor power factor.

Advantages and disadvantages

ADVANTAGES

DISADVANTAGES

Greater efficiency than linear regulators because the

greater complexity, the generation of high-amplitude, high-

switching transistor dissipates little power when acting as a

frequency energy that the low-pass filter must block to

switch

avoid electromagnetic interference(EMI), a ripple voltage at

Include smaller size and lighter weight from the elimination

the switching frequency and the harmonic frequencies

Very low cost SMPSs may couple electrical switching noise

of heavy line-frequency transformers, and comparable heat

back onto the mains power line, causing interference with

generation. Standby power loss is often much less than

A/V equipment connected to the same phase. Non-power-

transformers

factor-corrected SMPSs also cause harmonic distortion.

Three Types of SMPSs

SMPS full form is Switching Mode Power Supply. It is a main power supply to power the
each and every component of computer or it converts the main power supply 230volts
to12volts, 5volts, 3volts and distribute to all components of computer.

SMPSs are three types.

AT SMPS

ATX SMPS

BTX SMPS
AT SMPS:
AT stands for Advanced Technology. These are all old SMPSs. They had 12pin power
connector, this is called as AT power connector. They were used in Pentium-I, PentiumMMX, Pentium-II and Pentium-III CPUs.
ATX SMPS:
ATX stands for Advanced Technology extended. They had 20pin Power connector,
this is called as ATX power connector. They were used in Pentium-III, Pentium-IV and
AMD CPUs.
BTX SMPS:
BTX stands for Balanced Technology extended. They have 24pin Power connector,
this is also called as ATX power connector. It has 15pin SATA power connectors. They are
used in Dual core, core2duo, Quad core, i3, i5, i7 and latest AMD CPUs.

BTX CONNECTOR PINOUT

PI
N

NAME

COLOR

DESCRIPTION

3.3V

ORANGE +3.3 VDC

3.3V

ORANGE +3.3 VDC

COM

BLACK

Ground

5V

RED

+5 VDC

COM

BLACK

Ground

5V

RED

+5 VDC

COM

BLACK

Ground

PWR_OK

GRAY

5VSB

10

12V

YELLOW +12 VDC

11

12V

YELLOW +12 VDC

12

3.3V

ORANGE +3.3 VDC

13

3.3V

+3.3 VDC. ATX V2.3 / EPS12V V2.92 both define that the PSU has to use
remote sensing to compensate cable drops on the 3.3V line. Because of this
ORANGE
there is an additional brown cable crimped together with the orange cable
either to pin 13 (ATX) or pin 1 (EPS12V).

14

-12V

BLUE

15

COM

BLACK

Ground

16

/PS_ON

GREEN

Power Supply On (active low). Short this pin to GND to switch power supply
ON, disconnect from GND to switch OFF.

17

COM

BLACK

Ground

18

COM

BLACK

Ground

19

COM

BLACK

Ground

20

-5V

WHITE

-5 VDC (this is optional on newer ATX-2 supplies, it is for use with older AT
class expansion cards and can be omitted on newer units)

21

+5V

RED

+5 VDC

22

+5V

RED

+5 VDC

23

+5V

RED

+5 VDC

24

COM

BLACK

Ground

Power Ok is a status signal generated by the power supply to notify the

computer that the DC operating voltages are within the ranges required for
proper computer operation (+5 VDC when power is Ok)

PURPLE +5 VDC Standby Voltage (max 10mA, max 2A in ATX 2.2 spec)

-12 VDC

ATX CONNECTOR PINOUT

Pi
Name
n

Color

Description

3.3V

ORANGE

+3.3 VDC

3.3V

ORANGE

+3.3 VDC

COM

BLACK

Ground

5V

RED

+5 VDC

COM

BLACK

Ground

5V

RED

+5 VDC

COM

BLACK

Ground

PWR_OK GRAY

Power Ok is a status signal generated by the power supply to notify the

computer that the DC operating voltages are within the ranges required for
proper computer operation (+5 VDC when power is Ok)

5VSB

PURPLE

+5 VDC Standby Voltage (max 10mA) 500mA or more typical

10

12V

YELLOW

+12 VDC (may sometimes have a colored stripe to indicate which rail it's on)

11

3.3V

ORANGE

+3.3 VDC

12

-12V

BLUE

-12 VDC

13

COM

BLACK

Ground

14

/PS_ON

GREEN

Power Supply On (active low). Short this pin to GND to switch power supply
ON, disconnect from GND to switch OFF.

15

COM

BLACK

Ground

16

COM

BLACK

Ground

17

COM

BLACK

Ground

18

-5V

WHITE

-5 VDC (2002 v1.2 made optional, 2004 v2.01 removed from specification)

19

5V

RED

+5 VDC

20

5V

RED

+5 VDC

Connectors of computers & SMPS Power supply

USB Connector
Universal serial bus is the latest craze in external device connector It is faster than Rs-232 serial
Most importantly, all the USB devices attached to a computer(up to 127) consume a single
interrupt(IRQ). If we have other USB devices such as a USB digital camera or modem we might able to
save an interrupt by rutting mouse on the USB port as well When computer Boot up IRQ is reserved for
all the peripherals connected to board but in case of the mouse or some other device is connected to the
port than its driver will not be loaded and after starting operating system the connecting of mouse will not
work but for the USB port whether the drive is connected or not the IRQ is reserved so that whenever we
want to attach USB Camera it does not bother.
Serial port connector
Conventionally serial ports more properly referred to as RS-232 These are mostly used to attach
x86 computers modern computers use 9-pin serial port connectors generally that are used for mouse and
connected at COM port m/b have 2 com ports COM 1 and COM 2 These days mouse port come
separately and COM port are used for other devices to communicate.
power supply connector

Generally it has 4 wires for power conduction .these are plugged into the device in only one
way .3.5 inch floppy use smaller connectors. Power splitter is used to split the power to connect more
devices. One or two splitter probably does not constitute problem.
The connector has 4 wires.
(a)Red

+5v DC

(b)Black

GND

(c)Black

GND

(d)Yellow

+12v DC

ATX Connector
At is the newer version of AT/Baby AT. ATX motherboard use a single keyed power connector in
contrast to the dual connectors of AT and Baby AT boards. The keyed ATX power connector makes it
nearly impossible to destroy a motherboard by connecting power supply incorrectly. In addition ,ATX
boards run on 3.3v eliminating the need of voltage regulator

ATX boards also host a series of power related changes, allowing the computer to power itself off when
the o.s. shuts down power itself on in response to specified events, go into low power mode and so on .
These are of 4 types(a)ATX
(b)Mini-ATX
(c)Micro-ATX
(d)Flex-ATX

AT and Baby AT connectors

This kind of connectors are used in small system like laptop and small cabinets this was used
before ATX come for home uses.Generally they have 5-pin DIN connector.
AT and Baby AT motherboards used a pair of power connector, which had to be attached to the cases
power supply via cables permanently attached to the power supply in such case M/B voltage is 5v. But
todays motherboard required 3.3v.so such m/B required voltage regulators which converts 5v to 3.3v
these voltage regulators produced heat and depending upon the amount of current drawn by the CPU
could overheat and cause unreliable operation.

FAN Connector
CPU cooling FAN, system FAN has required power supply to move fan .these have 3 pin connector
inserted at motherboard at particular place.

V-core Connector
In some m/B there is no provision for internally give voltage to CPU like new boards. They have this
connector which is key locked to m/B and give required voltage to CPU

CD audio jack Connector.

Different types of cards
This connector has double ended. One inserted into CDROM drive and other end is connected to
CD IN near the sound chip on motherboard. This is used in case of running audio CD without as
interface.
There are of seven types of cardsDISPLAY CARD
(a) CGA->

 color graphical adaptor

This is of 9 pin card.
8088,80286,80386
8bit isa slot
(b) VGA->
video graphical adaptor
15 pin cards.
m/b 80486,PI
16bit/32bit/64bit.
(c) Dual CGA card->
9pin+25pin
9pin->monitor
25pin->printer
4 MB in size
IDE CARD [integrated device electronics]
16 bit cards.
These cards are used for H.D.D and F.D.D control.
SIDE CARD [super integrated device electronics]
F.D.C/H.D.C/MOUSE/PRINTER/GAME CONTROLLER
16bit/32bit
Com1->mouse
Com2->external modem[10 pin]
SOUND CARD
(a) non-pci->
16bit/32bit
(b) pci->
64bit
in this card there is a 15 pin game controller and au out ,mic,Line in
4 MB in size
NETWORK CARD (LAN card)
(a)

32bit LAN card

Speed is 10 MBits/s.
There two types of connectors used.

BNC->Broadcast network connector

RJ->Register jack connector(RJ->45)

Boot rom->it is an IC used to boot all the other pcs which has no hard disk but they can be
boot with the help of network boot this process is done by the help of Boot rom.
b) 64 bit LAN card,

Speed is 100Mb.
MODEM.
Convert analog signal into digital signal and vice versa.
There are two types of modem.
a)

External Modem.

Speed of the modem card 24/28/33/40/50/56.6Kbps

b) Internal Modem.
Having same speed as external card .it is also PCI Card (64bit).its speed which is now a day used is
56.6Kbps.
TV-TUNNER CARD
It is also a PCI card of 64 bit.
it is two types
(a) Internal
(b)External
POWER SUPPLY
Most of the cases come with power supplies. Each variety of case -ATX, AT tower. It is possible
to overload a power supply but power splitter. Since we know
WATTS=VOLTS*AMPS
Capacity of power supply measures in wattage. eg. if a 5v device draws 10 amps, it consumes 50
watts. As an example a computer with one 15a card, two PC cards, a 3.5 inch floppy disk ,two HDD, a cdrom and two extra cooling fan.
Adding up these values, this computer requires 50.16w from 3.3v, 77.5w from 5v and 70.5w
from 12v for a total of 198.16w. The motherboard consumes a few more watts, as well perhaps 25w or so
depending on the board and cpu. Not all devices require their max. amounts of power at the same time.
Typically for instance, harddisk require a great deal of power when they start up to over come the inertia
inherent in stopped disk platters.
WIRES IN POWER SUPPLY

The green wire, it present is a grounding wire. Attach it to any convenient metal part of

the case.

The black and white wires connect to the angled tabs on (toggle) the power switch.

The brown and blue wires connect to the tabs that are parallel to one another on the

switch. The brown and blue wires always carry current when the power supply is plugged in. Therefore,
we should only try to connect or disconnect these wires ofter unplugging.
SWITCH MODE POWER SUPPLY(SMPS)
It is the power supply system used in the system box. The switch mode power supply(SMPS) is
use 220v as the input and at the out it gives DC current with different values used by different component
of the computer as +5v used by keyboard LED , +12v used by SMPS cooling fan and +12v for processor
cooling fan. The out put power supply so we get form the SMPS while using the different type of color.
They are basically of six color.
Different color wire from SMPS with the voltage they haveyellow ----------->+12v
red

------------>+5v

black ------------>GND
blue

------------>-12v

white ------------>-5v
orange------------->power signal identify
We have two type of the SMPS cabinateATX--->Advance Technology Exchange
AT ---->Advance Technology

ATX cabinate has ATX SMPS have 20 pin with lock system.
UNINTRRUPTIBLE POWER SUPPLY

It is an device which is used to store the elecric power when the main power supply is cut off by
any reasion. Then we can use the power of the ups which is allready store in the UPS. It basically contain
the storage battery which store the power supply. It take 220v as the input and gave 220v as the output. It
also contain the transformer used to step up the electricity.