Tutorial: Power Management Using Integrated Voltage Regulators

Aggressive technology scaling has enabled very high levels of transistor integration. Managing total power consumption has emerged as the most challenging task in today's highly complex microprocessor systems. In this tutorial, we will review power management techniques implemented in recent designs. Independent per-core dynamic voltage scaling is proven to be an effective way to minimize power consumption. Due to the size and routing planes, the number of independent platform rails is limited to a very small number. Near-load voltage regulators provide a practical solution. This tutorial includes a survey of recent innovations in near-load voltage regulators.