TI's 3GSPS ADC targets nanosecond power-rail faults in AI racks
Texas Instruments has introduced the ADC34DSO75, an analogue-to-digital converter the company describes as the industry's highest performance at 3 gigasamples per second (GSPS), designed for continuous, low-power, event-based remote monitoring of power rails at nanosecond resolution. TI unveiled the device at the Open Compute Project (OCP) Global Summit.
TI says existing monitoring approaches often miss nanosecond-level power-rail glitches that can lead to unplanned downtime in data centres, and that the ADC34DSO75 combines high-speed sampling with on-chip digital signal processing to capture transient fault events in real time. According to TI, this is the first device to offer fully remote, event-based telemetry, removing the need for on-site debugging or oscilloscopes for this purpose. TI states the approach allows continuous high-resolution monitoring of low-voltage, high-current rails without requiring constant high-bandwidth data capture.
Two further devices shown alongside the ADC
TI also detailed two related parts at the same event:
- LMI800PS: described by TI as the industry's first 800V isolated hot-swap controller, replacing what the company says is a discrete five-IC solution with a single package providing in-rush current and power path protection. TI states it reduces board area by more than 60%, offers 5kVrms reinforced isolation and more than 8mm creepage, and supports both ±400V and 800V distributions.
- LMK6B: a bulk acoustic wave (BAW)-based oscillator that TI says delivers best-in-class jitter performance and power-supply rejection ratio, quoting 9.6fs jitter at 625MHz, relevant as data transmission rates approach 3.2Tbps.
TI attributes the need for these developments to the demands of scaling AI infrastructure, where power instability, limited real-time monitoring and signal degradation are cited as sources of costly downtime. Karthik Vasanth, vice president and general manager for TI's Data, Converters and Clocks business unit, said TI aims to give hyperscalers and operators real-time visibility and architectural stability through its telemetry, power protection and timing products.
The devices were shown as demonstrations at TI's OCP booth, alongside the company's wider 800VDC power portfolio featured on NVIDIA's MGX AI Factory Ecosystem wall, which includes an 800V hot-swap controller solution, an 800V-to-12V DC/DC bus converter, and an 800V-to-6V DC/DC bus converter using GaN power stages. TI power electronics engineer David Reusch is scheduled to present on 800V data centre DC/DC design trade-offs at the same event.
