Dynamic Power Performance Management (DPPM): Platform-level Laptop Thermal Management

posted by Dan Huynh on October 17, 2008

Hot. That is the only word to describe your surroundings. With the sun beating down on you, your fatigued hand wipes your moistened brow. You always wanted an adventurous job outside of that traditional sedentary cubicle life. Planted in the middle of sandy desolation writing that Sahara Desert article, you just hope your laptop performs as if it was sitting back in your air-conditioned office. After all, you still have to do your job and so should your laptop.

Intel Dynamic Power Performance Management (DPPM) is platform thermal management for laptops that allows for optimized performance in all conditions, while maintaining components under thermal specifications. Allowing the intelligent communication between the processor, chipset, and memory, DPPM can manage laptop power and thermals at the platform level, by utilizing the fact that every component has a power/thermal relationship with one another. If one component consumes more power, it not only heats itself, but also the neighboring components. Exploiting this principle reduces thermal guard band, allowing for thinner, lighter, and even fanless laptop design.

The DPPM demo at the Intel Developer’s Forum in Taiwan highlights this intelligent thermal management technology. Two fully rugged, fanless Panasonic Toughbooks are placed in a temperature controlled desert-themed terrarium (think sand, cactus, snakes, and lizards, oh my!) running the same applications. The only difference is one system is using DPPM platform-level thermal management while the other is using traditional component-level thermal management. At the elevated ambient temperature of up to 38°C (think tanning in Palm Springs), the system with traditional component-level thermal management plays the Monterey Bay video in a “stuttering” or “choppy” manner. However, the laptop with DPPM technology runs the Monterey Bay video nice and smoothly. System performance is less impacted by harnessing the principles of platform thermal management, while keeping everything nice and cool.

I do have to report one sad note regarding the demo. Unfortunately, “Cammy” the official snake of Intel Dynamic Power Performance Management is terrified of flying and did not make the trip across the Pacific. Cammy did create quite a stir at the Intel Developer’s Forum in San Francisco a few months ago by showing DPPM benefits in extreme environments like his natural habitat. How “extreme?” Click here.

Don’t worry, Cammy—with a technology like Intel Dynamic Power Performance Management (DPPM) that assists laptop designers in building thinner, lighter, and even fanless systems, you will have plenty of opportunities for more press time.

Photo: Intel Executive VP Dadi Perlmutter and “Cammy” seem to like the platform-level thermal management concept of DPPM

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tagged: DPPM, fanless, idf2008, intel developer forum, power, power management, thermal, thermal management, thin laptop