Intel's Xeon Shows Its Stuff in 7 Motherboards

Cooler Installation Is Simple Now, Continued

Controlling Voltage And Temperature

24 voltage regulators ensure optimum voltage supply for the Xeon processors.

Using two 3.6 GHz Xeon processors, the thermal loss can exceed 200 W with a current of 150 A. Intel had to accommodate the VRM specifications for the increased requirements, going from VRM version 9.0 to 10.1. In addition to these adjustments, the latest version also incorporates a protection mechanism for the voltage regulators.

The bi-directional PROCHOT signal (processor hot) forces the CPU to throttle the clock speed in order to reduce the thermal strain. Apart from that, we noted that most motherboard makers decided to provide their voltage regulators with heat sinks.

Patrick Schmid
Editor-in-Chief (2005-2006)

Patrick Schmid was the editor-in-chief for Tom's Hardware from 2005 to 2006. He wrote numerous articles on a wide range of hardware topics, including storage, CPUs, and system builds.