Relationships in design of computer power supplies and modern power amps, e.g. class D?

[Multicore]

Some years ago I thought I saw some visual correspondence between the circuitry of computer power supplies and the photos of the modern class D power amp modules I saw on ASR. Clearly at the heart of both is the switching principle but I wondered if any specific advances in the art of computer power supply design helped or even allowed class D amp design to reach the level it now has. Perhaps even parts from one discipline were adopted by the other.

From the functional point of view a computer PSU is designed to maintain a steady voltage across a highly dynamic load, responding to the load with large variations of current. A music power amp is also a voltage source but now it is referenced to a variable input signal, and it wants to maintain that across a wide variety of complex loudspeaker loads. Meanwhile energy efficiency became a very high priority in computer design years ago and I wonder if this rubbed off on the audio amps where efficiency is valued but is often not primary focus of design effort.

 

[tomtoo]

Usually class d amps use very stiff switching power supplys. So in that sense every advancement in psu's also helps class d amps.