Chicken and egg?
Nah. More a marketing and/or user education issue.
Wattage ain't everything. According to my reading the folks behind the PD standard decided on using wattage as the main spec because it would make it easier for consumers to compare competing PSU offerings. And it does, if you're charging laptops.
Where it breaks down is that the average consumer then expects a 100W PD PSU to be able to deliver 100W regardless of all other constraints. And likely doesn't understand what a watt is in this context.* As we know, high wattage on PD means supplying at a higher voltage - 20V for 100W - because the connector can't handle more than 5A.
FWIW, the long term solution, at least as I see it, would be for RPL to support all of the standard PD voltages instead of just 5v on the next generation. But that likely adds cost, complexity, and needs more board space.
We'll have to wait and see.
The Pi5 clearly needs more than 15W to implement its design goals with the available (affordable) silicon.
Err, no. Only if you want the full 1.6A (8W) for downstream bus powered USB devices. If you can work with 600mA (3W) or don't need the full 17W for the PI and HATS, 5v/3A (15W) is fine. FWIW, I've booted lightly loaded Pi5 off an 8W supply - the USB port of another Pi5.
*: for those who don't know, for DC it's equal to volts times amps.
Statistics: Posted by thagrol — Thu Jan 02, 2025 7:10 pm