NVM Programming for VR13 Power Controllers

TPS53679, TPS53659, TPS53622 are Intel™ VR13 Serial VID (SVID)-compliant power supply controllers that have programmable parameters. This guide also applies to proprietary footprint devices TPS53678, TPS53658 TPS53655, as well as TPS53681, even though it is not an Intel power controller. The PMBus interface configures the parameter values which are stored into non-volatile memory (NVM) as new boot-up default values. This guide gives a tutorial on NVM programming, and the tools TI provides for the programming process. This guide applies to all the devices in the TI VR13 controller family.

Trademarks

Intel is a trademark of Intel Corporation.

1 Introduction

This guide gives an overview of NVM programming for the following TI VR13 controller devices: TPS53679, TPS53659, TPS53622, TPS53678, TPS53658, TPS53655 and TPS53681. Local TI sales and field applications representatives can provide relevant documentation to these devices. This guide gives a technical overview and step-by-step instructions.

1.1 Software Tools

1.1.1 Fusion Digital Power Designer

Fusion Digital Power Designer is a graphical user interface (GUI) that configures and monitors Texas Instruments digital power controllers, sequencer monitors, and health monitors. The GUI uses the PMBus protocol to communicate with the device over a serial bus using a proprietary USB adapter.

Use the Fusion Digital Power Designer GUI for engineering development. The GUI gives access to all available user-configurable settings, fault information, and telemetry readings. After you configure the device, you can export the settings to a configuration file. The export options are:

System file (.tifsp) contains configuration data for all of the devices in a system
Project file (.xml) contains configuration data for a single device
PMBus programmer script (.csv) is a text file containing step-by-step programming instructions for non-TI software tools

Download the latest version of Fusion Digital Power Designer from this URL: http://www.ti.com/tool/fusion_digital_power_designer

1.1.2 Fusion Manufacturing Tool

The Fusion Manufacturing Tool is a graphical user interface (GUI) that programs TI digital power controllers in a production environment. Download the latest copy of the Fusion Manufacturing Tool from this URL: http://www.ti.com/tool/fusion_mfr_gui

1.1.3 Online and Offline Modes

The Fusion Digital Power Designer software operates in online mode when you have connected a device to the system that hosts the software. The software operates in offline mode when you have not connected a device to the system that hosts the software. The software installer provides a different shortcut for each mode.

1.1.4 Relevant File Formats

Table 1. Configuration File Formats

File	Description	Extension	Type	Compatilble Software
Fusion project file	Contains configuration data for a single device. Intended for engineering development.	.xml	plain-text XML	Fusion Digital Power Designer
Fusion system file	Contains configuration data for multiple devices. Can be used in engineering development, and production programming.	.tifsp	plain-text XML	Fusion Digital Power Designer, Fusion Manufacturing Tool
PMBus programmer script	Simplified programming script (comma separated format) for production environment.	.csv	plain-text comma separated value	Fusion Digital Power Designer and third-party tools

1.2 Hardware Tools

1.2.1 USB-to-GPIO Dongle

Both Fusion Digital Power Designer and Fusion Manufacturing Tool GUIs use the TI USB-GPIO adapter to interface between a host computer and controller devices. Use this link to get a TI USB-GPIO adapter: http://www.ti.com/tool/usb-to-gpio.

2 Technical Overview

This section shows how to program NVM with the TI software tools, or with non-TI tools.

2.1 Hardware Connections

You can program NVM on a fully-populated application board. However, successful programming requires only a few connections be made to these devices. In some cases offline gang-programming in socketed boards works better than a full In Circuit Test (ICT) solution.

Table 2. Hardware Connections for Offline NVM Programming

Pin Name	Connection
V3P3	Connect to +3.3V supply, and bypass with a minimum of 1.0 µF to ground.
VREF	Bypass to ground with a minimum of 1.0 µF to ground.
ADDR	Connect a resistor divider from VREF to ADDR to Ground to set the PMBus address (required for programming), as described in the product datasheet.
SMB_DIO, SMB_CLK	Connect to programming host, pull-up to 3.3V with a 2.2 kΩ resistor. Note, the TI USB-to-GPIO interface adapter has internal pull-up resistors.
ATSEN, BTSEN, TSEN	Not used for NVM programming. Tie-off with a 1:1 resistor divider from VREF to TSEN to Ground, suggested resistor value is 49.9 kΩ. This sets the pin voltage to appx. 0.85 V, which the controller device interprets as 32°C.
AVR_EN, BVR_EN, VIN_CSNIN, CSPIN, AVSP, BVSP, AVSN, BVSN	Not used for NVM programming. Tie-off to ground.
ACSPx, BCSPx	Not used for NVM programming. Tie off to VREF.
APWMx, BPWMx, ASKIP, BSKIP, VRFAULT, SMBALERT, SALERT, PIN_ALT, SDIO, SCLK	Not used for NVM programming. Float these pins if not used.

Figure 1. Hardware Connections

2.2 Communication Protocol and Interfacing

These devices comply with the PMBus version 1.3 specification. Use this link to find timing and electrical characteristics of the PMBus specification in the PMB Power Management Protocol Specification, Part 1, revision 1.3 available at http://pmbus.org.. The PMBus specification inherits its transport and network layer behavior from the SMBus specification. These devices comply with the SMBus 3.0 specification, which is available at this URL: http://smbus.org/specs/. Use the transaction prototypes to program the device NVM correctly. Refer to the Section 2.3 section for more information about prototype use in NVM programming.

The use of Packet Error Correction (PEC) is optional. If clock pulses are supplied for a PEC byte, these devices use PEC, otherwise they do not. For simplicity, Table 3 lists required transaction types without PEC bytes.

Table 3. SMBus Transaction Types

Transaction Type	Purpose
Send Byte	Used to issue NVM Store operations (STORE_DEFAULT_ALL).
Write Byte	Used to change the current PAGE
Write Word	Used to Write the value of VOUT_MAX.
Read Word	Used to Read the current value of VOUT_MAX.
Write Block	Used to Write the USER_DATA commands, which contain most of the NVM storable parameters these devcies support.
Read Block	Used to read the USER_DATA commands and checksum (MFR_SERIAL).

Figure 2. Send Byte Protocol

Figure 3. Write Byte Protocol

Figure 4. Write Word Protocol

Figure 5. Read Word Protocol

Figure 6. Block Write Protocol

Figure 7. Block Read Protocol

2.3 Programming Process

To simplify the programming procedure and reduce programming time, TI VR13 controller devices combine NVM settings into a small number of registers. All settings in MFR_SPECIFIC commands map into registers USER_DATA_00 through USER_DATA_12. Only a few other registers are required. Program the USER_DATA command with the Block Read/Write command protocol described in the SMBus Specification. Table 4 lists the complete NVM configuration for a single device. All other settings map to USER_DATA commands.

The Fusion Digital Power Designer GUI lets power supply designers configure devices in a graphical environment. The GUI saves these settings in a configuration file or script that you can load on to other devices.