The Altera Enpirion^® EN29A0QI 10A PowerSoC DC/DC Step-Down Converter module is designed to generate voltage rails requiring very low ripple, low EMI, and tight DC and AC accuracy. The device is optimized specifically to meet the stringent requirements of Altera FPGA and SoC transceivers, as well as transceivers for other FPGA and ASIC devices. The EN29A0QI delivers high conversion efficiency while maintaining excellent accuracy. The EN29A0QI utilizes a high-performance control loop that enables a significant reduction in the required bulk decoupling capacitors. Bulk decoupling capacitors, such as poly-tantalum or OSCON can introduce reliability concerns, so reduction of these not only saves cost and space, but also improves system reliability. The low impedance control loop enables the use of thin-film precision resistors which exhibit superior long-term stability and reliability. In addition, the EN29A0QI is highly integrated and is designed, characterized, and qualified as a power system, which further enables improved system level reliability. The EN29A0QI provides a high degree of programmability. This includes programmable startup and shutdown timing, and a programmable switching frequency, which allows the user to optimize the trade-offs between ripple and efficiency. The EN29A0QI also features a precision enable and POK to optimize sequencing, and a bi-directional SYNC pin that enables the device to output a master clock, synchronize to another EN29A0QI, or synchronize to an external system clock which can be dithered to further reduce EMI. The EN29A0QI also supports startup into pre-biased loads for glitch-free, smooth and monotonic ramping of the output voltage. This is an important feature for rails with large bulk capacitance which may have insufficient time to discharge or that have leakage paths from one rail to another. The EN29A0QI provides all of these features in a 12mm x 14mm x 4mm, 84-pin QFN package with an overall solution size of just 360mm².