CME34M Hardware Manual - RTD Embedded Technologies, Inc.

Enhanced Intel SpeedStep (Core 2 Duo only)
Enhanced Intel® SpeedStep® Technology has revolutionized thermal and power management by giving operating
systems greater control over the processor’s operating frequency and input voltage. Systems can easily manage
power consumption dynamically. Today’s embedded systems are demanding greater performance at equivalent
levels of power consumption. Legacy hardware support for backplanes, board sizes and thermal solutions have
forced design teams to place greater emphasis on power and thermal budgets. Intel has extended architectural
innovation for saving power by implementing new features such as Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology.
Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology allows the processor performance and power consumption levels to be
modified while a system is functioning. This is accomplished via operating system or application software, which
changes the processor speed and the processor core voltage while the system is operating. A variety of inputs
such as system power source, processor thermal state, or operating system policy are used to determine the
proper operating state.
The software model behind Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology has ultimate control over the frequency and
voltage transitions. This software model is a major step forward over previous implementations of Intel
SpeedStep technology. Legacy versions of Intel SpeedStep technology required hardware support through the
chipset. Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology has removed the chipset hardware requirement and only requires
the support of the voltage regulator, processor and operating system. Centralization of the control mechanism
and software interface to the processor, and reduced hardware overhead has reduced processor core
unavailability time to 10 μs from the previous generation unavailability of 250 μs.
Thermal Monitor
The Intel ® Thermal Monitor is a feature on the CME34M that automatically throttles the CPU when the CPU
exceeds its thermal limit. This allows the processor to operate for short durations at a higher frequency than the
thermal solution or ambient temperature would otherwise allow. The thermal limit and duty cycle of the
Thermal Monitor cannot be modified.
A second thermal monitor is used to throttle the memory interface when the memory controller or the memory
approaches it’s thermal limit. This ensures proper operation even under the harshest conditions. The thermal
monitors operate independently of each other.
aDIO with Wake-on-aDIO
RTD’s exclusive aDIO is 12 digital bits configured as 8 bit-direction programmable and 4-bit port-direction
programmable I/O, plus 2 strobe inputs giving you any combination of inputs and outputs. Match, event, and
strobe interrupt modes mean no more wasting valuable processor time polling digital inputs. Interrupts are
generated when the 8 bit-direction programmable digital inputs match a pattern or on any value change event.
Bit masking allows selecting any subgroup of eight bits. The strobe input latches data into the bit-programmable
port and generates an interrupt. Any of the interrupt modes can be used to generate a wake event from any
standby/powerdown mode.
BDM-610000076 Rev A Chapter 1: Introduction 3