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AP-523
7
values. However, actual specifications are documented in
the
Pentium Pro
a
Processor Developer’s Manual,
Volume 1.
The Pentium Pro processor with 256-Kbyte cache
operates at 3.1V, compared with 3.3V for a Pentium
ò
815/100 processor, and 5V for previous Intel processors.
The tolerance requirement remains at 5%, while the
average current demand is approximately 3 times that of
the Pentium 815/100 processor. In addition, the Pentium
Pro processor shuts off unused units to conserve power,
and includes features such as
Stop Clock
and
Auto Halt,
which create load-change transients as high as 8.5 Amps
in just one or two bus clock cycles. In this document, a
load-change transient is a change from one current
requirement (averaged over many clocks) to another.
Figure 4 illustrates the V
CC
and V
SS
currents of a
processor coming out of a low power state and then
running in a full power state. The averaged V
CC
is shown
to illustrate what is meant by the term
load-change
transient
. V
SS
current is higher than V
CC
current in
Figure 4 due to power being delivered from the GTL+
bus power supply through the Pentium Pro processor
GTL+ buffers. Other transients which must be
understood are the switching transients which occur at
the processor clock rate, also shown in Figure 4.
Time (ns)
V
SS
Current
V
CC
Current
Averaged V
CC
Current
Load-Change
Transient
Switching
Transient
Switching
Transient
Figure 4. Transient Types
Future Pentium Pro family processors may have a
requirement for a separate 3.3V supply for the L2 cache
die, as well as higher current requirements, and different
voltages for the CPU die.
The GTL+ bus is terminated at each end to a voltage
source called V
TT
. V
TT
is nominally 1.5V, with a
tolerance of 150 mV. This bus implementation allows up
to 8 loads, and may be run at speeds up to 66 MHz. Just
as the processor can start and stop executing within a few
clock cycles, the bus usage will follow.
Each of these concepts is discussed in the following
sections. The GTL+ power requirements are discussed in
Section 5 and Section 6.
3.1.
Voltage Tolerance
The processor voltage tolerance specification has
remained at 5%, while the voltage specification has
decreased.
This
causes
requirement to decrease. For example, 5% of 5V is ±250
mV while 5% of 3.1V is ±155 mV. It is important to note
the
absolute
tolerance