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AMD PowerNow! is
AMD
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) is an American multinational semiconductor company based in Santa Clara, California, that develops computer processors and related technologies for business and consumer markets. While it initially manufactur ...
's
dynamic frequency scaling
Dynamic frequency scaling (also known as CPU throttling) is a power management technique in computer architecture whereby the frequency of a microprocessor can be automatically adjusted "on the fly" depending on the actual needs, to conserve ...
and power saving technology for
laptop
A laptop, laptop computer, or notebook computer is a small, portable personal computer (PC) with a screen and alphanumeric keyboard. Laptops typically have a clam shell form factor with the screen mounted on the inside of the upper li ...
processors. The
CPU's
clock speed
In computing, the clock rate or clock speed typically refers to the frequency at which the clock generator of a processor can generate pulses, which are used to synchronize the operations of its components, and is used as an indicator of the pr ...
and
VCore The CPU core voltage (''VCORE'') is the power supply voltage supplied to the central processing unit, CPU (which is a digital circuit), Graphics processing unit, GPU, or other device containing a processing core. The amount of Power_(physics), powe ...
are automatically decreased when the computer is under low load or idle, to save
battery
Battery most often refers to:
* Electric battery, a device that provides electrical power
* Battery (crime), a crime involving unlawful physical contact
Battery may also refer to:
Energy source
*Automotive battery, a device to provide power t ...
power, reduce heat and
noise
Noise is unwanted sound considered unpleasant, loud or disruptive to hearing. From a physics standpoint, there is no distinction between noise and desired sound, as both are vibrations through a medium, such as air or water. The difference arise ...
. The lifetime of the CPU is also extended because of reduced
electromigration, which varies exponentially with temperature.
[ AMD.com – TechDocs]
The technology is a concept similar to
Intel
Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...
's
SpeedStep
Enhanced SpeedStep is a series of dynamic frequency scaling technologies (codenamed Geyserville and including SpeedStep, SpeedStep II, and SpeedStep III) built into some Intel microprocessors that allow the clock speed of the processor to be dyna ...
technology. The adaptation of PowerNow! for AMD's desktop CPUs is called
Cool'n'Quiet
AMD Cool'n'Quiet is a CPU dynamic frequency scaling and power saving technology introduced by AMD with its Athlon XP processor line. It works by reducing the processor's clock rate and voltage when the processor is idle. The aim of this techn ...
. Newer
Opteron
Opteron is AMD's x86 former server and workstation processor line, and was the first processor which supported the AMD64 instruction set architecture (known generically as x86-64 or AMD64). It was released on April 22, 2003, with the ''Sledg ...
s also use an adaptation of PowerNow! called ''Optimized Power Management.''
AMD has supplied and supported drivers for its PowerNow! technology that work on Windows 98, ME, NT, and 2000.
Processors supporting PowerNow!
*
K6-2+
*
K6-III+
*
Athlon XP-M - some models.
*
Mobile Athlon 64
*
Mobile Sempron
The Sempron is a name used for AMD's low-end CPUs, replacing the Duron processor. The name was introduced in 2004, and processors with this name continued to be available for the FM2/FM2+ socket in 2015.
Features overview
CPU features table
Des ...
*
Turion 64
AMD Turion is the brand name AMD applies to its x86-64 low-power consumption (''mobile'') processors codenamed ''K8L''. The Turion 64 and Turion 64 X2/Ultra processors compete with Intel's mobile processors, initially the '' Pentium M'' and the I ...
and
X2
*
Athlon II
Athlon II is a family of AMD multi-core 45 nm central processing units, which is aimed at the budget to mid-range market and is a complementary product lineup to the Phenom II.
Features
The Athlon II series is based on the AMD K10 architect ...
*
AMD Accelerated Processing Unit
AMD Accelerated Processing Unit (APU), formerly known as Fusion, is a series of 64-bit microprocessors from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), combining a general-purpose AMD64 central processing unit ( CPU) and integrated graphics processing unit ...
See also
*
Dynamic frequency scaling
Dynamic frequency scaling (also known as CPU throttling) is a power management technique in computer architecture whereby the frequency of a microprocessor can be automatically adjusted "on the fly" depending on the actual needs, to conserve ...
Power Saving Technologies:
*
AMD Cool'n'Quiet (desktop CPUs)
*
AMD PowerTune
AMD PowerTune is a series of dynamic frequency scaling technologies built into some AMD GPUs and APUs that allow the clock speed of the processor to be dynamically changed (to different ''P-states'') by software. This allows the processor to me ...
(graphics)
*
Intel SpeedStep (CPUs)
Performance Boosting Technologies:
*
AMD Turbo Core
AMD Turbo Core a.k.a. AMD Core Performance Boost (CPB) is a dynamic frequency scaling technology implemented by AMD that allows the processor to dynamically adjust and control the processor operating frequency in certain versions of its processor ...
(CPUs)
*
Intel Turbo Boost
Intel Turbo Boost is Intel's trade name for central processing units (CPUs) dynamic frequency scaling feature that automatically raises certain versions of its operating frequency when demanding tasks are running, thus enabling a higher resultin ...
(CPUs)
References
External links
AMD PowerNow!
AMD technologies
Computer hardware tuning
{{compu-hardware-stub
X86 architecture