Thermal design power (TDP), sometimes called thermal design point, is the maximum amount of heat generated by a computer chip or component (often a CPU, GPU or system on a chip) that the cooling system in a computer is designed to dissipate under any workload.
The TDP is typically not the largest amount of heat the CPU could ever generate (peak power), such as by running a power virus, but rather the maximum amount of heat that it would generate when running “real applications”. This ensures the computer will be able to handle essentially all applications without exceeding its thermal envelope, or requiring a cooling system for the maximum theoretical power (which would cost more but in favor of extra headroom for processing power).
Some sources state that the peak power for a microprocessor is usually 1.5 times the TDP rating. However, the TDP is a conventional figure while its measurement methodology has been the subject of controversy. In particular, until around 2006 AMD used to report the maximum power draw of its processors as TDP, but Intel changed this practice with the introduction of its Conroe family of processors. In particular, Intel’s measurement also does not fully take into account Intel Turbo Boost due to the default time limits, while AMD does because AMD Turbo Core always tries to push for the maximum power.
A similar but more recent controversy has involved the power TDP measurements of some Ivy Bridge Y-series processors, with which Intel has introduced a new metric called scenario design power (SDP).
VisualSim can model these CPU TDP power variations with the Power_Manager as the baseline block.
Web: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_design_power