Digital Power Corporation, a subsidiary of TurnOnGreen, announced it has completed its development of a generic access platform power supply unit that it said will help multi-system operators and other broadband service providers to add new functions and services to their broadband access nodes.
The company said the generic access platform (GAP) will help accelerate technology updates, deliver multiple services utilizing a single node platform, facilitate the migration to an edge-computing model, increase service velocity and reduce inventory costs.
The announcement comes after the cable TV industry in particular has been pursuing the development of standardized GAP outside plant equipment that would allow providers a cheaper, faster and smoother path to supporting new broadband technologies and access methods, including DOCSIS 4.0, PON, mobile services, and others. The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) approved the first GAP standards in late 2021, and for several years prior it had been championed by Charter Communications, among others.
Digital Power Corporation (DPC) noted that while the initial standards are focused on the North American cable market, the standardized approach also can be applied to strand-mount node housings used in Europe and other regions. “The standardization of GAP technology will lead the industry away from the variety of proprietary nodes and create a scalable environment for industry growth,” the company said in a statement. “GAP standards also aim to improve interoperability between different telecommunication organizations.”
DPC’s GAP power supply unit offers adaptive power management technology that measures and controls energy, monitors power consumption, and reduces power consumption while improving power efficiency, high density and very low electromagnetic interference. DPC said the GAP’s topology uses a boost circuit to store energy for an extended hold-up-time, “a record 0.2 seconds,” while still fitting into the form factor required by the standard. The proprietary design uses a dual-core DSP, with one core dedicated to power control of the AC-to-DC and DC-to-DC converters and the second core used for monitoring and reporting over a controller area network that meets industry standard communications protocols.
DPC owner TurnOnGreen is itself owned Imperalis Holdings Corp, which is in turn owned by BitNile Holdings Corp. BitNile late last year divested TurnOnGreen, which also has an electric vehicle power business, to Imperalis with the eventual intent to have TurnOnGreen go public on Nasdaq. That public listing has yet to happen.