Temperature-aware computing

Temperature-aware techniques have established themselves as crucial steps during the design and operation of new complex ICs (e.g. dual-core microprocessors) in order to protect the ICs against high temperatures that may drastically reduce their lifetime or even render them inoperable. These techniques have been developed after it became clear that power-aware techniques and low-power design are insufficient since they still allowed hotspots to develop in the chip with temperatures considerably higher than the average temperature.The goal of this paper is to provide an overview of the state-of-the-art of temperature-aware computing. After a brief introduction, we present the current approaches to measuring the temperature of a circuit during its operation and to estimating, during the design phase, the maximum temperature that the circuit will experience. We then survey the known techniques for designing a chip with lower maximum temperature. This is followed by reviewing the currently employed run-time temperature management techniques.This paper presents a thorough review of the research done in the past decade or so in the field of thermal-aware computing and lists most of the relevant journal and conference papers on this topic.