Dennard scaling

E232504

principle in microelectronics scaling law

Dennard scaling is a principle in microelectronics stating that as transistors shrink, their power density stays constant, allowing higher clock speeds and more transistors per chip without increasing overall power consumption.

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All labels observed (3)

Label	Occurrences
Dennard scaling canonical	9
Dennard scaling law	1
MOS transistor scaling theory	1

How this entity was disambiguated

This entity first appeared as the object of triple T2088718 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.

NED1 Entity disambiguation (via context triple) gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07

Target entity: Dennard scaling
Context triple: [Moore's law, relatedConcept, Dennard scaling]

A. Moore's law
Moore's law is an observation and prediction that the number of transistors on an integrated circuit—and thus computing power—tends to roughly double at regular intervals, driving exponential growth in digital technology.
B. “Cramming more components onto integrated circuits”
“Cramming more components onto integrated circuits” is the landmark 1965 article by Gordon E. Moore that introduced the observation later known as Moore’s Law, predicting the exponential growth of transistor density on integrated circuits.
C. Amdahl's law
Amdahl's law is a formula in computer architecture and parallel computing that predicts the maximum performance improvement achievable by parallelizing parts of a system, given that some portion must remain serial.
D. RISC architecture
RISC architecture is a CPU design philosophy that uses a small, highly optimized set of simple instructions to achieve high performance and efficiency.
E. Xe-HPG microarchitecture
Xe-HPG microarchitecture is Intel’s high-performance gaming-oriented GPU architecture designed to power its discrete Arc graphics cards with advanced features like hardware-accelerated ray tracing.
F. None of above. chosen
G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.

NED2 Entity disambiguation (via description) gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07

Target entity: Dennard scaling
Target entity description: Dennard scaling is a principle in microelectronics stating that as transistors shrink, their power density stays constant, allowing higher clock speeds and more transistors per chip without increasing overall power consumption.

A. Moore's law
Moore's law is an observation and prediction that the number of transistors on an integrated circuit—and thus computing power—tends to roughly double at regular intervals, driving exponential growth in digital technology.
B. “Cramming more components onto integrated circuits”
“Cramming more components onto integrated circuits” is the landmark 1965 article by Gordon E. Moore that introduced the observation later known as Moore’s Law, predicting the exponential growth of transistor density on integrated circuits.
C. Amdahl's law
Amdahl's law is a formula in computer architecture and parallel computing that predicts the maximum performance improvement achievable by parallelizing parts of a system, given that some portion must remain serial.
D. RISC architecture
RISC architecture is a CPU design philosophy that uses a small, highly optimized set of simple instructions to achieve high performance and efficiency.
E. Xe-HPG microarchitecture
Xe-HPG microarchitecture is Intel’s high-performance gaming-oriented GPU architecture designed to power its discrete Arc graphics cards with advanced features like hardware-accelerated ray tracing.
F. None of above. chosen

Statements (47)

Predicate	Object
instanceOf	principle in microelectronics ⓘ scaling law ⓘ
appliesTo	CMOS technology ⓘ MOSFET transistors ⓘ
assumes	constant electric field scaling ⓘ supply voltage scales down with feature size ⓘ threshold voltage scales with device dimensions ⓘ
breakdownCause	leakage currents ⓘ power density constraints ⓘ voltage scaling limits ⓘ
consequenceOfBreakdown	greater emphasis on energy efficiency ⓘ greater emphasis on parallelism ⓘ shift toward multicore processors ⓘ thermal limits on further clock frequency increases ⓘ
contrastsWith	post-Dennard scaling era ⓘ
coreIdea	as transistors shrink, power density remains approximately constant ⓘ smaller transistors allow higher clock frequencies without increasing power density ⓘ smaller transistors allow more devices per chip at similar total power ⓘ transistor dimensions, voltage, and current scale together ⓘ
describedIn	“Design of ion-implanted MOSFET’s with very small physical dimensions” ⓘ
enabled	increasing transistor counts without proportional power increase ⓘ rapid increase in microprocessor clock speeds in the 1980s and 1990s ⓘ
field	computer architecture ⓘ microelectronics ⓘ semiconductor technology ⓘ
hasConcept	capacitance scaling ⓘ constant power density ⓘ current density scaling ⓘ delay scaling ⓘ feature size scaling ⓘ voltage scaling ⓘ
historicalStatus	held approximately from the 1970s to the early 2000s ⓘ
implies	clock frequency can increase with each technology node ⓘ higher integration density at similar power budgets ⓘ power per transistor decreases as transistors shrink ⓘ switching delay decreases with smaller transistors ⓘ
influences	chip power budgeting ⓘ microprocessor design trade-offs ⓘ technology node scaling strategies ⓘ
namedAfter	Robert H. Dennard ⓘ
relatedTo	Moore’s law ⓘ linked to: Moore's law
statedIn	1974 ⓘ
status	has largely broken down in modern process nodes ⓘ
supports	historical CPU performance scaling ⓘ
timePeriod	prevalent during planar CMOS scaling era ⓘ
usedBy	microprocessor performance projections ⓘ semiconductor industry roadmaps ⓘ