A new mantra is rising from the attendees at semiconductor conferences and trade shows today: power management. Everyone is talking about the best way to direct and distribute power in digital chips, so much so that this technology-previously dealt with as an afterthought-has taken center stage.

Companies that specialize in power management-Linear Technologies, International Rectifier, Texas Instruments and National Semiconductor, among others-have been posting record revenues, and many see no end in sight to this growth, in spite of uncertainty in the industry.

Why is this former redheaded stepchild of the semiconductor space suddenly in the limelight? A couple of factors are playing into the desire to couple more functions with less power. Most prevalent is the increase in mobile devices. "Managing power is one way to increase battery life," says Linnea Brush, a senior research analyst with the Darnell Group, an analyst firm that covers all aspects of power.

But although consumers want new features, such as video in cell phones, they aren't interested in trade-offs-whether in features or battery life. "Customers expect increased functions and performance," says Paul Greenland, director of product marketing for National Semiconductor's power management group, "but they are unwilling to sacrifice any battery life."

Another factor is even more familiar than portable devices: Moore's law. Chip manufacturers have engaged in a never ending quest for smaller process technologies, making the circuitry on their chips denser. Putting more functions into less space requires more power, generates more heat and poses significant design and manufacturing challenges.

Some industry observers say that the challenges of power and heat are what caused semiconductor kingpin Intel to cancel its Tejas and Jayhawk processors, the successors to the Prescott, Intel's X86 desktop chip, and the current Xeon server processor. Intel has denied that the cancellation had anything to do with heat, but the chip giant previously acknowledged that power and heat pose a growing challenge as process nodes continue to shrink.

Alex Lidow, CEO of power management IC maker International Rectifier, recounts a slide that Intel presenters showed at a conference in 2001. "At that time, they said their processors were running at the temperature of a hot-plate," he says. "But by 2007, they said, if they didn't do anything differently, their chips would reach the temperature of the surface of the sun."

Obviously, a chip that hot wouldn't last long on a printed circuit board, a desk or someone's lap. That's why so many digital chip companies that previously treated power management as an afterthought are now more progressively thinking about it during the chip design phase.

In 2001 Intel "said their processors were running at the temperature of a hot-plate. But by 2007, if they didn't do anything differently, their chips would reach the temperature of the surface of the sun."

-Alex Lidow, CEO, International Rectifier

Processor makers themselves have focused much attention on this issue recently, looking to increase the efficiency of power on the chip. Intel's introduction of processors specifically for the mobile market was accompanied by technologies to reduce the power needed, and thus the heat. And processor upstart Transmeta has long boasted about the power efficiency of its processors. Last fall the company introduced LongRun2, power management software based on its internally developed technology. In March 2004, NEC Electronics was the first to license the technology.

"The lower the voltage the faster a microprocessor can go," says Dave Hage, executive vice president at Power One, "so companies keep lowering he voltage and raising the current." But Lidow says that scaling chips down to smaller geometries is like adding more showers to a house without increasing the water pressure to the house (with the showers representing more circuitry and the water pressure representing voltage).

Even more problematic, the voltage going onto the chip used to be standard, according to Hage. But to combat the power management problem, companies have reduced the voltage, and now use different voltages.

Hence the increased interest in the power management companies that offer the chip sets that help regulate power going into processors in computers, cell phones and other devices. As evidence of the growing importance of their products, some of these companies have been experiencing revenue increases in the 20 to 30 percent range year over year for the most recent quarter.

The increased interest is changing the design cycle of chips, forcing companies to think about power management earlier and more often. "For digital chip makers, power management has been the quintessential evil," says National's Greenland. "It used to be that you designed an IC and then gave the design to Fred, because he knew how to do power. It's refreshing now, because customers have come to the conclusion that they have to work on power when they are building their chips. So we are working more closely with our customers now than ever before."

The result can only be beneficial when power management is built in rather than bolted on.