In modern computer microchip architecture, the local dynamic thermal power dissipation (in milliwatts, ) of a processing core transistor sub-grid depends on its clock frequency (in gigahertz, ) and logic supply voltage (in volts, ), governed by:
To handle a demanding computational workload spike, an embedded Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS) microcontroller algorithm adjusts both operational parameters concurrently over run-time (in milliseconds, ):
- Compute the operating frequency and voltage at .
- State the multivariable chain rule formula for the total time derivative .
- Calculate the instantaneous rate of change of power dissipation at .
- Explain how modern thermal management firmware uses the partial sensitivities and to prevent processor thermal throttling.