Title :
Power considerations in the design of the Alpha 21264 microprocessor
Author :
Gowan, Michael K. ; Biro, Larry L. ; Jackson, Daniel B.
Author_Institution :
Digital Equipment Corp., Hudson, MA, USA
Abstract :
Power dissipation is rapidly becoming a limiting factor in high performance microprocessor design due to ever increasing device counts and clock rates. The 21264 is a third generation Alpha microprocessor implementation, containing 15.2 million transistors and operating at 600 MHz. This paper describes some of the techniques the Alpha design team utilized to help manage power dissipation. In addition, the electrical design of the power, ground, and clock networks is presented.
Keywords :
CMOS digital integrated circuits; microprocessor chips; 600 MHz; Alpha 21264 microprocessor; Digital; clock network; device counts; electrical design; ground network; high performance microprocessor design; power considerations; power dissipation; power network; transistors; Circuits; Clocks; Frequency; Leakage current; MOS devices; Microprocessors; Permission; Power dissipation; Power supplies; Subthreshold current;
Conference_Titel :
Design Automation Conference, 1998. Proceedings
Conference_Location :
San Francisco, CA, USA
Print_ISBN :
0-89791-964-5
