1 Introduction
As processors continue to increase in performance and speed, processor power consumption and heat dissipation have become key challenges in the design of future highperformance systems. For example, Pentium-4 class processors currently consume well over 50W and processors in the year 2015 are expected to consume close to 300W [1]. Increased power consumption and heat dissipation typically leads to higher costs for thermal packaging, fans, electricity, and even air conditioning. Higher-power systems can also have a greater incidence of failures.