Hi guys. I have a concern about that the 16-chip board could overload the PTH14020WAH voltage converter.

According to my experimental data with 10-chip boards of this topic, and according to the Avalon-2 datasheet, it seems that the maximum load current of the voltage converter (50A) will be exceeded when the chips are run at their maximum speed.

By datasheet, the chips claim 2.05W/Gh. We could run the chips at 1.5-1.6GH/s on the 10-chip board, so on the 16-chip board the typical power consumption will be 2.05*1.6*16=52.48W. Assuming 1V core supply voltage, this results in 52.48A consumption from the DVDD source.

But the measured power consumption is a bit higher. The 10-chip board draws 3.5A from the 12V source which is 42W. Assume 3W goes into 3.3V supply to power the PIC and the rest of the circuit, while 39W goes into the voltage converter. Assuming 85% efficiency (per datasheet at this output voltage), the output power is 33.15W which corresponds to 33A current draw for 10 chips. If we run 16 chips in this mode, the current would proportionally rise to 53.04A.

This is only a slight overload, but still. I wonder if any of you guys have any experience about how does the voltage converter behave in this overload mode. Does it still function properly? Does the output voltage drop or start oscillating or smth? Do the converter's components overheat?