CPU voltage regulator integration

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Jamie M 13 years ago

Hi,

Apparently some new Intel CPU's are being tested with on board voltage regulators (2.4V input buck converters for CPU power rails). Whats really surprising is these voltage regulators include the power mosfets and also the inductors, and possibly even the capacitors I'm not sure!

The efficiency right now is only about 80% for the on die regulator, which might be a deal killer I'd say, plus it is eating up expensive real estate on the CPU die, and adding heat. But I wonder how long until IR.com has a programmable one of these on their site?

Here are the links to the story and a pdf of the technology:

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cheers, Jamie

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Jasen Betts 13 years ago

80% is not a big deal, the current crop of intel CPUs have tiny heatsinks, and low heastsink clamping force compared to 4 years ago. They can't be producing much heat to start with. Another 20% isn't going to be a big deal.

?? 100% natural

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rickman 13 years ago

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That sounds a lot like the Enpirion technology. They have been selling switchers for a number of years that include on die magnetics. I agree that it seems an odd duck to want to include in the CPU package much less on the die.

Rick

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John Larkin 13 years ago

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It looks like the switcher is a separate piece of silicon, in the package with the CPU but not the same chip.

The umpta-phase switcher is cool. I've done three phase, but IC designers don't much care about parts count.

What's the "virus" on p18 of the PDF?

John Larkin Highland Technology Inc www.highlandtechnology.com jlarkin at highlandtechnology dot com Precision electronic instrumentation Picosecond-resolution Digital Delay and Pulse generators Custom timing and laser controllers Photonics and fiberoptic TTL data links VME analog, thermocouple, LVDT, synchro, tachometer Multichannel arbitrary waveform generators

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langwadt 13 years ago

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maybe that is because it is a test chip?, it says 90nm, the processor they used is 65nm. don't know if it is even possible to do all the thick metal and magnetic layers in the process used for the CPU

the e7330 they used is already two processor dies in one package

don't

I believe that is what they call a special software that can put maximum load on all parts of the chip at the same time

-Lasse

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josephkk 13 years ago

Cute. I expect that the shebang is more in package rather than completely on chip. More likely the regulator is on chip but the switch, inductor, and caps are in package. I'll bet it runs at some several MHz.

?-)

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langwadt 13 years ago

ely

,

it's right there in the presentation, it is a separate chip but switches and inductors are on chip and it is programmable between

30 and 140MHz

-Lasse

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CPU voltage regulator integration

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