What is thermal guideline/thermal spec???

[Jonsio]

According to intel specs the 3.2 ghz P4 has the ff.

Thermal Guideline 82.0W
Thermal Spec 70°C

I read this is the hottest cpu around these days, literally.

Anybody knows what the above terms mean and can you explain in layman terms?

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Thermal Guideline - The amount of heat (in watts) the chip will generate maximum. Used as a guideline for heatsink manufacturers/purchasers.

Thermal Spec - The temperature at which thermal migration (chip suicide) begins to occur. Don't go above it. Intel chips will clock-throttle (cut their speed) at this temperature to avoid death, but an early AMD will merrily bring silicon to a boil. The newer XPs have internal diodes and will simply shut off at their thermal limit.

- M4H

 

[MrThompson]

Think again. Have a look at these P4 Xeon specs from Intel. For example a 3.06 GHz Xeon has a Thermal Design Power of 85 watts and a Maximum Power of 101 watts. Intel's Thermal Design Power or Thermal Guideline refers to the wattage at the average load expected by a heavy user, not the maximum. Until the document linked to above was published, this little marketing ploy has been hidden from the public, much like the fact that the P4 internal diode your motherboard reads is not in the hottest part of the CPU.

 

[MDE]

The 3.2 P4 is the hottest 'mainstream' desktop CPU out there, which is what I think Jonsio was referring to.

 

[MrThompson]

Agreed but if the Thermal Guideline is 82 watts, it's close to 100 watts at full load.