Intel
®
E7500 and Intel
®
E7501 Chipsets MCH Thermal Design Guide
Thermal Design Guide
5
1.0
Introduction
1.1
Document Goals
The objective of thermal management is to ensure that the temperatures of all components in a
system are maintained within functional limits. The functional temperature limit is the range within
which the electrical circuits may be expected to meet specified performance requirements.
Operation outside the functional limit may degrade system performance, cause logic errors, or
cause component and/or system damage. Temperatures exceeding the maximum operating limits
may result in irreversible changes in the operating characteristics of the component. The goal of
this document is to provide an understanding of the operating limits of the Intel
®
E7500 and Intel
®
E7501 chipset MCHs and describe a reference thermal solution for embedded applications.
1.2
Document Scope
This document addresses thermal design and specifications for the Intel E7500 and Intel E7501
chipset MCH components only. For thermal design information on other chipset components, refer
to the respective component thermal design guides. For the Intel
®
P64H2, refer to the
Intel
®
PCI-64 Hub 2 (P64H2) Thermal Design Guidelines.
For general thermal enabling of the Intel E7501 chipset, refer to the Intel
®
E7500, Intel
®
E7501,
and Intel
®
E7505 Chipsets MCH Thermal Design Guidelines.
1.3
Design Flow
To develop a reliable, cost-effective thermal solution, several tools have been provided to the
system designer.
shows the design process implicit to this document and the tools
appropriate for each step.
Figure 1. Thermal Design Process
Step 1: Thermal Simulation
• Thermal model
• Thermal model user’s guide
Step 2: Heat Sink Selection
• Thermal reference
• Mechanical reference
Step 3: Thermal Validation
• Thermal testing software
• Software user’s guide
Step 1: Thermal Simulation
• Thermal model
• Thermal model user’s guide
• Thermal reference
•
Step 3: Thermal Validation
• Thermal testing software
•
