What caught my eye was the new spec includes side channels for the PSU to communicate with add in hardware. Specifically to report the PSUs capabilities. This looks like a red flag to me. This could be used as a way to vendor lock certain features of hardware to certain brands or capacities of PSU. Get ready for DRM that checks your system all the way down to the PSU level. I prefer a dumb PSU that just gives up the…
I went looking for the specs because I was specifically interested in how that power negotiation works. Turns out it's only two wires with plain static logic signals, no communication or anything. https://cdrdv2.intel.com/v1/dl/getContent/613768 page 25. Sense0 Sense1 Initial Max Gnd Gnd 375W 600W Open Gnd 225W 450W Gnd Open 150W 300W Open Open 100W 150W
I wonder if there is any wiggle room in the spec to piggyback a proprietary signal. For example, do you think a PSU that toggled the output of one rail between two specific values between spec polling intervals might be able to indicate to proprietary software the specific brand or model of PSU?