CPU thermal design power?

[tommyj27]

i've been digging around trying to find power consumption for different CPUs, i'm looking for something that doesn't draw a lot of power for a new server. the athlon 64 power datasheet (link) refers to Thermal Design Power, which it defines as:

Thermal Design Power (TDP) is measured under the conditions of Tcase, IDD Max, and VDD=VID_VDD,and include all power dissipated on-die from VDD, VDDIO, VLDT, VTT, and VDDA.

In layman's terms, is this a measurement of power drawn by the CPU? something that directly correlates to it? I'm also looking at some docs for the Pentium IIs that I'm using right now (the goal is to go for lower power use)(link). That info refers to the "Thermal Guideline" which i'm assuming is the same as TDP (more or less).

can anyone confirm or deny?

and yes i am aware that there is some amount of subjectivity in the numbers

 

[Luis G]

Tricky one, specially the "all power dissipated on-die".

One can not obtain more power than the one you feed, perhaps it is safe to assume their numbers are right.

 

[Kruz]

I use this program to measure my cpu.
it will give you an idea what the Opterons are running at.

AMD64 TCaseMax - v1.13
----------------------

CPU Information (CPU #1):
Standard CPUID: Family: F, Model: 7, Stepping: 1
Extended CPUID: Family: F, Model: 27, Stepping: 1
CPUID String: 20F71
Processor APIC: 0
Processor: AMD Opteron 146 (San Diego)
CPU Speed: 2911.98 (291.20 x 10.0)
Revision: SH8-E4
Platform: Socket 939
Startup VCore: 1.400v
Maximum Case Temperature = 63C
TDP: 61.8 Watts

Written by: Arthur Liberman.
Idea by: Petr Koc.
More info at: http://www.thecoolest.zerobrains.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=83