Intel
®
Core
TM
2 Duo E6400, E4300, and Intel
®
Pentium
®
Dual-Core E2160 Processor—Thermal
Management Logic and Thermal Monitor Feature
Intel
®
Core
TM
2 Duo E6400, E4300, and Intel
®
Pentium
®
Dual-Core E2160 Processor
TDG October 2007
26 Order Number: 315279 - 003US
4.0 Thermal Management Logic and Thermal Monitor
Feature
4.1 Processor Power Dissipation
An increase in processor operating frequency not only increases system performance,
but also increases the processor power dissipation. The relationship between frequency
and power is generalized in the following equation: P = CV
2
F (where P = power, C =
capacitance, V = voltage, F = frequency). From this equation, it is evident that power
increases linearly with frequency and with the square of voltage. In the absence of
power saving technologies, ever increasing frequencies will result in processors with
power dissipations in the hundreds of watts. Fortunately, there are numerous ways to
reduce the power consumption of a processor, and Intel is aggressively pursuing low
power design techniques. For example, decreasing the operating voltage, reducing
unnecessary transistor activity, and using more power efficient circuits can significantly
reduce processor power consumption.
An on-die thermal management feature called Intel
®
Thermal Monitor is available on
the processor. It provides a thermal management approach to support the continued
increases in processor frequency and performance. By using a highly accurate on-die
temperature sensing circuit and a fast acting Thermal Control Circuit (TCC), the
processor can rapidly initiate thermal management control. The Thermal Monitor can
reduce cooling solution cost by allowing thermal designs to target TDP.
The processor also supports an additional power reduction capability known as Intel
®
Thermal Monitor 2 described in Section 4.2.3.
4.2 Thermal Monitor Implementation
The Thermal Monitor consists of the following components:
• A highly accurate on-die temperature sensing circuit.
• A bi-directional signal (PROCHOT#) that indicates if the processor has exceeded its
maximum temperature or can be asserted externally to activate the Thermal
Control Circuit (TCC) (Refer to Section 4.2.1 for more details on user activation of
TCC via PROCHOT# signal).
• FORCEPR# signal that will activate the TCC.
• A Thermal Control Circuit that will attempt to reduce processor temperature by
rapidly reducing power consumption when the on-die temperature sensor indicates
that it has exceeded the maximum operating point.
• Registers to determine the processor thermal status.
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