Trends in the Use of Digital Technology for Control and Regulation of Power Supplies*

Since the availability of computers, accelerator power supplies have relied on digital technology in some way, from such simple tasks as turning the supplies on and off to the supplying of computer-controlled references. However, advances in digital technology, both in performance and cost, allow considerably more than simple control and monitoring. This, coupled with increasing demand for higher performance and monitoring capabilities, has made it appealing to integrate such technology into power supply designs. This paper will review current trends in the use of such advanced technology as embedded DSP controllers, and the application of real-time algorithms to the regulation and control of power supplies for accelerators and other largescale physics applications.