3GHz Pentium 4 Requires New Motherboards

One of the more interesting sessions at Intel's Fall Developer Forum 2002 covered the requirements for thermal management of the upcoming 3.06GHz Pentium 4. Pushing the clock rate that high really pushes the power envelope of the P4 to heights not seen since the original 0.18 micron Willamette.

The power and heat dissipation envelope of Northwood has finally caught up and exceeded that of the 2GHz Willamette CPU. So Intel is issuing new thermal and power guidelines for motherboard designers, which will require most motherboard designs to be updated. The real culprit here is the voltage regulator - this section is responsible for better than half the heat dissipation.

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