Thermal Design of Graphics and Digital Media Processors

NVIDIA (NVDA) – worldwide leader in graphics and digital media processors – is committed to helping its customers ensure that die temperatures of their graphical processor chips are maintained below thermal specifications. The traditional way to evaluate the effect of different packages on the thermal performance of a new chip has long been to build a prototype of the package and chip and perform physical testing – a time consuming and expensive process. Using the Flotherm software to construct detailed 3D thermal models of chip and package, NVIDIA has developed a “turn the crank” process for optimizing package selection and developing reference thermal solutions that will work in nearly every design. This process uses “compact” thermal models that make it possible to model the thermal performance of a new part in a particular package in just one hour or so.