Using digital control in power supplies is considerably more flexible than analog control in its ability to adapt to changes and digital control inside the power supply results in advantages to the system application such as improved efficiency, fewer external components and reduced overall cost.

The embedded digital control circuitry in the power supply can also be used for system power management purposes. Flexibility is the key and the power system designer may choose features and capabilities that are important to a specific application.

Digital power management can be used at several different stages of the power supply and power system life cycle; during manufacturing of the power supply, during optimization of the power system design, and with a host controller on the board, a lot of added functionality can be implemented. The PMBus is the most common interface protocol for digital power management of power supplies and the PMBus specification is freely distributed and available on a royalty-free basis. The use of digital techniques results in capabilities and performance levels at both the power supply and system levels that is not possible with analog techniques and at the same time offering possibilities for significant overall system cost reductions.