No other event brings together more power supply manufacturers and most will be found in the dedicated power hall B2. Practically every type and size of power supply product from tiny point-of-load converters and the recently announced sixteenth brick DC-DC converters to large cabinet-based DC power systems for telecoms applications will be presented at the show.

Every significant power supply manufacturer will take part including Astec - whose parent company Emerson recently announced its intention to acquire Artesyn, Power-One - the pioneer of digital power management, SL Power Electronics - the new company formed by the merger of Condor Power with Ault, and Roal - the Italian company fast making a name for itself in the growing "front-ends" sector of the market. Others will include Traco, Vicor, Lambda and Unipower.

The power supply industry is a vital sector of the electronics industry. Power is fundamental to every electronic product and the power supply industry's ability to provide ever increasing power levels from ever decreasing packages has in turn allowed manufacturers of electronics-based products to reduce the size of their products and yet increase the capability and feature levels offered.

Key drivers for the power supply industry include raising power-conversion efficiencies as they relate to saving energy and operating costs. One of the primary applications driving both of these will be servers where, in addition to reducing the amount of energy required to run a rectifier or front end, increased efficiencies will also reduce the amount of heat that is dissipated and lower site-level cooling costs.

Another increasing trend is the use of digital power management for point of load solutions used within AC-DC power supplies and used at the systems level. Visitors to electronica 2006 can expect to see more AC-DC front-end power supplies and telecom rectifiers, using digital control techniques to save energy and reduce operating costs.

System-level concepts evident at the Fair will include intelligent/adaptive management techniques that continually adjust the internal operating parameters of AC-DC front ends and DC-DC converters, in order to optimize efficiencies and key performance parameters. This activity-based management will reduce power dissipation and consumption by controlling the intermediate bus voltage, clock frequencies, and cooling fan speeds.

electronica 2006 will occupy a total of 152,000m² across 14 exhibition halls and the organisers are confident that more than 75000 visitors will get the opportunity to view the products and services of more than 3000 exhibitors.