Thermal Considerations
VL-EPU-4012 Hardware Reference Manual
66
Table 24. Test 1 - Dual Core Thermal Test Results
Temp
CPU - No Fan
CPU - Fan
Speed
Throttle
Power
25C
39
32
1800
N
12
60C
79
66
1800
N
13
85C
101
92
1800
N
15
90C
103
97
1800
N
15
As shown above, running the test scenario with just the heat sink, the core temperature is slightly
above 100 ºC at high ambient temperature. This will be less in most applications that require less
than 90% CPU utilization. Adding the fan provides an additional 5-8 ºC of margin. For long-term
reliability, ensure the CPU cores are predominately running with their temperatures below 100
ºC.
Test Scenario 2: Quad Core EPU-4012-EDP + HDW-408 Heat Sink, with/without HDW-415
Fan
Table 25. Quad Core Hardware Setup
Test Platform:
EPU-4012
s/n:
172460
BIOS:
1009
BIOS Trip points:
Critical - 125C, Hot - 119C, Passive - 111C, Active - 60C
Heat Sink
Configuration:
Hardware
Configuration:
1x DP monitor, 1x USB keyboard & mouse, 1x SATA HDD (6Gbs), 1x USB3
loopback, 2x USB2 loopback, 2x MPEe-E5E, 6x network
As shown below, the quad core version of the Owl will typically require a heat sink + fan for
operation above 80 ºC, at >90% CPU utilization.
Table 26. Test 2 - Quad Core Thermal Test Results
Temp
CPU - No Fan
Speed
Throttle
CPU - Fan
Speed
Throttle
Power
25C
41
2000
N
33
2000
N
21
60C
77
2000
N
68
2000
N
22
85C
103
1700-2000
Start
94
2000
N
24
90C
105
800-1300
Start
99
2000
N
23