Thermal design of Pentium ®II xeon processor cartridge

The Pentium ® II Xeon processor utilizes Intel-developed Slot 2 Single Edge Contact (S.E.C.) cartridge packaging technology. The thermal design of S.E.C. cartridge poses challenges because of the need to meet the thermal performance requirement of multiple packages within an enclosure. The complexity arises from the requirement to accommodate different core packages and varying numbers and locations of L2 cache packages on the processor substrate. The paper illustrates the substrate design, thermal plate design, thermal bus bar design, and thermal interface material selection for different core packages. The method to enhance the L2 cache power handling capability by changing the L2 cache layouts and using conductive coupling to the thermal plate is highlighted. The Slot 2 S.E.C cartridge design can be extended for all the future products within this technology envelope.