Thermal Design Current Control Mechanism using PID Controller in modern processors

Modern day micro-processors are expected not only to fit in more components and processing power inside their small form-factor, but they are also expected to have a longer life than their predecessors. Thermal design of each component is paramount in achieving this goal and must be taken into consideration from the very early stages of architecture design of the processors. Thermal Design Current or TDC is one such parameter that is dependent on the thermal capacity of the silicon and maintaining the TDC at expected levels is not only necessary to safeguard the VR (voltage regulator) and other board components from damage, but also to maintain the optimal performance level promised to the customer. However, there are not many SoC (System on Chip) features to manage the current directly. Thus, it becomes more critical to fine-tune the relevant algorithms more efficiently. PID controllers have been around for decades and play a major role wherever a control system needs to be designed in complex modern microprocessors. This paper focus on optimization techniques for TDC and its yield with the use of a conventional PID controller.