Effects of Using Advanced Cooling Systems on the Overall Power Consumption of Processors

The increase in power dissipation of high-performance computing systems has driven the need for advance cooling systems. Recently, localized spot cooling using embedded thermoelectric coolers (eTECs) and chip-level cooling using miniature-scale refrigeration system have been demonstrated for mitigating thermal and power problems in high-performance computing systems. Operating integrated circuit at a lower temperature can result in reduced electronic power, improved reliability, and potentially improved speed. However, total power dissipation must include both the electronic power and the cooling power to quantify overall system performance. This paper explores the amount of total power reduction using two different types of cooling system for electronic cooling, by using a model that incorporates both a real-world microprocessor and cooling systems. The analysis indicates that an optimal operating point depends on the parameters of electronics and cooling systems. Our results show that cooling the right element (the cache) using eTEC gives a modest 3% improvement but provides the benefit of full integration. On the other hand, chip-level cooling using our refrigeration system results in a total power savings of 25% over the nonrefrigerated design.