US Patent 7684878 Programmable hardware element pre-regulator

System and method for providing a programmable power supply. The programmable power supply may include a programmable hardware element (PHE) that couples to a power supply (DC-DC converter) and which in turn couples to a linear regulator. The PHE may implement a PID control algorithm that receives a measurement of the output power and may use PID and/or non-linear control to ensure that the power supply and the linear regulator maintain similar power levels. The PHE may be configured based on a graphical program, thus enabling fast and efficient modifications to the programmable power supply.