AMD ‘Bulldozer’ Opterons Will Feature TDP Power Cap
It is being reported that the upcoming AMD “Interlagos” and “Valencia” Opteron chips running on the “Bulldozer” core, will offer a feature called TDP Power Cap, which will let users reduce power usage without impacting performance. TDP Power Cap is one of several new features coming in Bulldozer-based chips designed to let enterprises better manage the power consumption and performance of their processors. When combined with other existing and new capabilities in the Opteron chips, customers are given an unprecedented level of flexibility in customizing their processors and shaping their data center environments, according to AMD officials. Being able to lower the TDP of the chip can result in an enterprise being able to add more blade systems to a rack, and do so without significantly reducing performance.
With the new Bulldozer-based Opterons, which are set for release in the third quarter, AMD is introducing TDP Power Cap, which will give enterprises the ability to set the TDP (thermal design power) of their processors, essentially customizing their chips to meet power and workload demands. Using various knobs in the BIOS, businesses will be able to reduce the overall TDP of the chipthey won’t be able to increase it beyond the maximum level set by AMDwhich will help in power consumption, and then tweak the frequency of the cores as needed to get the maximum amount of performance allowed under the TDP setting, Kerby said. “While you set the [TDP] cap, you can still operate at a high frequency,” he said. In addition, businesses can keep the TDP at the level set by AMD, and change the frequencies of the processors to add power, while keeping the overall power use under the TDP.
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