Original 45nm Intel® Core™ Microarchitecture

Power Improvements on 2008 Desktop Platforms

Paul Zagacki ,Client Platform Architecture and Planning, Intel Corporation

Vidoot Ponnala , Client Platform Architecture and Planning, Intel Corporation

Index words: low power, platform power management, energy efficiency, desktop power, desktop platform

Citations for this paper: Paul Zagacki, Vidoot Ponnala "Original 45nm Intel® Core™2 Processor Performance" Intel Technology Journal.http://www.intel.com/technology/itj/2008/
v12i3/7-paper/1-abstract.htm (October 2008).

ABSTRACT

Idle and low-utilization platform power management have been key deliverables for mobile platforms for many years. The resulting platforms based on Intel® Centrino® technology have delivered increasing performance and capabilities while continuing to increase the overall battery life of the mobile platform. These same principles have gained importance also in desktop platforms as corporations strive to reduce the cost of deploying platforms in support of their efforts to address global climate change and deliver more energy-efficient computing. Further, the Energy Star specification for computers was adopted on July 20, 2007 [1] , adding idle power targets to desktop platforms. The Energy Policy Act, adopted by Congress on July 27, 2007 [2] now requires that federal agencies buy equipment that is Energy Star qualified (effectively making Energy-Star compliance mandatory for some percentage of desktop platforms).

In this paper we present platform- and silicon-component power data that demonstrate advances in desktop platform power management enabled on 2008 platforms, built with the Intel® Q45 Express Chipset, originally referred to by the codename "Eaglelake," and Intel® processors based on the original 45nm Intel® Core™2 Quad microarchitecture, originally referred to by the codename "Yorkfield/Wolfdale". For instance, a 2008 desktop platform with more advanced power management can demonstrate (when correctly configured) a 16-percent reduction in AC idle power when compared with the same platform enabled with 2007 platform power-management techniques. In addition to providing an overview of how technologies such as deeper C-states or Serial ATA link power management (familiar in mobile platforms) dramatically reduce silicon and platform power, we also demonstrate the effectiveness of these technologies in desktop platforms, from operating-system power-management settings to devices such as USB keyboard mouse or multimedia card readers. Finally, we make recommendations on how to configure a desktop platform (hardware and software) to make the most of the new features found on our 2008 platforms.

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