computer science

PC Power and Cooling

PC Power and Cooling is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand PC Power and Cooling rather than just read about it. In short: PC Power and Cooling (stylized as PC Power & Cooling), a subsidiary of FirePower Technology, is an American manufacturer of computer power supplies based in Carlsbad, California. The company was established by Doug Dodson in 1985.

Key takeaways

PC Power and Cooling belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect PC Power and Cooling to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of PC Power and Cooling from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

PC Power and Cooling (stylized as PC Power & Cooling), a subsidiary of FirePower Technology, is an American manufacturer of computer power supplies based in Carlsbad, California. The company was established by Doug Dodson in 1985. In 2007, the company was acquired by OCZ Technology. In 2014, FirePower Technology acquired OCZ Technology Group's power supply division, which included PC Power and Cooling. The company was involved in many technologies related to computer temperature management. It sells products to both consumer and enterprise channels. The company can customize power supplies for American OEM customers in their Carlsbad facility.

History PC Power and Cooling, Inc., was founded by Doug Dodson in April 1985. An electronic hobbyist since childhood, Dodson worked in the financial sector as an adult in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In 1983, his workplace issued him a IBM PC XT—the power supply of which he deemed intolerably noisy due to its small cooling fan. He outfitted the power supply with a special large-diameter fan to quell the noise. This attracted the attention of his coworkers, who asked him to perform the same modification to their PCs. In 1985, Dodson set up shop in his garage to perform the modification to interested customers as a side business. Shortly into this venture, Dodson saw the need to reinvent the PC's power supply from scratch, as he deemed it "poorly designed by IBM in the early days. The fan would cavitate. There was no real airflow coming out, so you had a ton of noise and no cooling." Dodson then incorporated PC Power and Cooling in Bonsall, California, within San Diego County, where he hired a team of engineers to develop supplies running at a lower temperature than IBM's stock supply for the XT while generating less noise. In 1986, the company launched their Silencer line of power supplies, featuring a 120-mm-diameter fan. Shortly after, they developed the Turbo-Cool line of supplies, the first XT-compatible power supply with multiple fans. Between 1986 and 1987, the company sold 1,000 Silencers and 5,000 Turbo-Cools. The lowest-end entries in the line then were rated for between 150 and 200 watts. In September 2005, the company introduced the first PC power supply rated for 1000 watts. In around 1992, PC Power and Cooling relocated to Carlsbad, California, occupying a 13,000-square-foot facility. By 2005, they employed 40 workers. In May 2007, OCZ Technology of San Jose, California, announced their pending acquisition of PC Power and Cooling. The acquisition was completed by September 2007, with OCZ paying PC Power and Cooling an estimated $13 million for the deal. During their tenure under OCZ, PC Power and Cooling's branded products shifted more towards the enthusiast and businesses, while OCZ Technology branded power supplies cater more towards the gaming and entry level enthusiast segments. The company as a subsidiary of OCZ had a mutual relationship with OCZ's power supply group, with the latter developing PC Power's products in tandem with their own, while PC Power's engineers (including Dodson) worked as consultants and testers of OCZ's branded power supplies. In February 2014, FirePower Technology announced the acquisition of OCZ Technology Group's power supply division, which by then included PC Power and Cooling.

Models The Silencer brand of power supply units is available in 1050-watt and 1200-watt varieties as of October 2022. Variants in Dell's proprietary form factor of power supply units have also been offered. PC Power and Cooling also offers a maximum performance line of power supplies, the Turbo-Cool units, which as of October 2022 is available in one version of 860 watts. PC Power and Cooling has several power supplies that are 80 Plus certified; the Silencer 910W achieved the Silver Certification at over 88 percent efficiency.

References

External links Official website

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with PC Power and Cooling

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what PC Power and Cooling claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to PC Power and Cooling before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about PC Power and Cooling ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of PC Power and Cooling

In research: PC Power and Cooling appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses PC Power and Cooling in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: PC Power and Cooling is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2007 mergers and acquisitions, 2014 mergers and acquisitions, American companies established in 1985, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for PC Power and Cooling outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study PC Power and Cooling in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what PC Power and Cooling means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain PC Power and Cooling out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is PC Power and Cooling in simple terms?

Why does PC Power and Cooling matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study PC Power and Cooling?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on PC Power and Cooling.