Temperature measurement in the Intel® CoreTM Duo Processor

Abstract

Modern CPUs with increasing core frequency and power are rapidly reaching a point where the CPU frequency and performance are limited by the amount of heat that can be extracted by the cooling technology. In mobile environment, this issue is becoming more apparent, as form factors become thinner and lighter. Often, mobile platforms trade CPU performance in order to reduce power and manage thermals. This enables the delivery of high performance computing together with improved ergonomics by lowering skin temperature and reducing fan acoustic noise. Most of available high performance CPUs provide thermal sensor on the die to allow thermal management, typically in the form of analog thermal diode. Operating system algorithms and platform embedded controllers read the temperature and control the processor power. Improved thermal sensors directly translate into better system performance, reliability and ergonomics. In this paper we will introduce the new Intel ® CoreTM Duo processor temperature sensing capability and present performance benefits measurements and results.