Friday, August 6, 2010

Pulse-width modulation

Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is a common method of controlling fans. Modern computer motherboard PWM control when used with multi-core CPUs reads data from Digital Temperature Sensors on each core of the CPU.
Unlike the linear methods above that are based on voltage loss, PWM switches the input voltage between (nearly) fully on and fully off. This means there is practically no voltage or power loss and associated heat output. PWM controller can be a relatively small, low-power and cool-running, albeit complex, component that doesn't require heavy duty resistors, diodes or transistors and associated heatsinking.

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