Despite the varying alternatives to a point of load solution, there are some practical and cost-saving advantages of using point of load DC/DC converters. Most notably, customers find the ease of use of POL converters offers a significant advantage. Customers can put their design efforts into the system design and not have to worry about the power design. All that is required are input and output capacitors and one resistor to program the output voltage. Layout, control loop stability, noise issues and protection are resolved in the module. Furthermore, multiple sourcing is possible especially as different manufacturers meet the requirements of DOSA and POLA specifications. Typically POL converters also use less board space which benefits many of the space restricted applications and equipment of today. Using one POL converter in place of multiple discrete parts also allows for reduced bill of materials management and procurement. Also one module equates to a single component placement in manufacturing rather than multiple discrete component placements and assembly costs. Finally, POL converters are often able to operate with a higher efficiency than low profile monolithic DC/DC modules.