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Why does a faster clock require more power?

If you overclock a microcontroller, it gets hot.
If you overclock a microcontroller, it needs more voltage.
In some abstract way it makes sense: it is doing more computation, so it needs more energy (and being less than perfect, some of that
energy dissipates as heat).
However, from a just plain old Ohm's law level electricity and magnetism, what is going on?
Why does the clock frequency have anything to do with power dissipation or voltage?
As far as I know, the frequency of AC has nothing to do with its voltage or power, and a clock is just a super-position of a DC and a
(square) AC. Frequency doesn't affect the DC.
Is there some equation relating clock frequency and voltage or clock frequency and power?
I mean does a high speed oscillator need more voltage or power than a low speed one?
frequency

oscillator

low -pow er

edited Jan 2 4 '1 1 at 6 :1 1

ty blu
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asked Oct 2 5 '1 0 at 1 7 :58

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Jack Schm idt

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Thanks for the great answers. One critical bit I was m issing is that (1 MHz Atm el sty le) CMOS doesn't
actually use m uch current when it is not doing any thing. TTL does tend to use current all the tim e, and
that is m ore what I was picturing. I really like the capacitor charging answers; this giv es a m uch clearer
reason why "calculations" should require energy . I wish I could accept m ultiple answers.
Jack Schm idt Oct 2 5 '1 0 at 1 9 :54

4 Answers
Voltage required is affect by significantly more than clock speed, but you are correct, for higher
speeds you will need higher voltages in general.

Why does power consumption increase?

This is a lot messier than a simple circuit, but you can think about it being similar to an RC
circuit.

RC circuit equivilent
At DC an RC circuit consumes no power. At a frequency of infinity, which is not attainable,
but you can always solve this theoretically, the capacitor acts as a short and you are left with a
resistor. This means you have a simple load. As frequency decreases the capacitor stores and
discharges power causing a smaller amount of power dissipated overall.

What is a microcontroller?
Inside it is made up of many many MOSFETs in a configuration we call CMOS .
If you try to change the value of the gate of a MOSFET you are just charging or discharging a
capacitor. This is a concept I have a hard time explaining to students. The transistor does a lot,
but to us it just looks like a capacitor from the gate. This means in a model the CMOS will
always have a load of a capacitance.
Wikipedia has an image of a CMOS inverter I will reference.

help

The CMOS inverter has an output labeled Q. Inside a microcontroller your output will be
driving other CMOS logic gates. When your input A changes from high to low the capacitance
on Q must be discharged through the transistor on bottom. Every time you charge a capacitor
you see power use. Y ou can see this on wikipedia under power switching and leakage .

Why does voltage have to go up?

As you voltage increases it makes it easier to drive the capacitance to the threshold of your
logic. I know this seems like a simplistic answer, but it is that simple.
When I say it is easier to drive the the capacitance I mean that it will be driven between the
thresholds faster, as mazurnification put it:
With increased supply drive capability of the MOS transistor also increases (bigger Vgs).
That means that actual R from RC decreases and that is why gate is faster.
In relation to power consumption, due to how small transistors are there is a large leakage
through the gate capacitance, Mark had a bit to add about this:
higher voltage results in higher leakage current. In high transistor count devices like a
modern desktop CPU leakage current can account for the majority of power dissipation. as
process size gets smaller and transistor counts rise, leakage current becomes more and
more the critical power usage statistic.
edited Jan 2 8 '1 1 at 1 9 :1 7

answered Oct 2 5 '1 0 at 1 8:57

Kortuk
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couples things i would add: higher v oltage results in higher leakage current. In high transistor count
dev ices like a m odern desktop CPU leakage current can account for the m ajority of power dissipation. as
process size gets sm aller and transistor counts rise, leakage current becom es m ore and m ore the critical
power usage statistic. Mark Oct 2 5 '1 0 at 2 1 :2 5

Secondly , higher v oltage allows transistors to switch m ore rapidly because of how capacitors charge. We
know that a capacitor will charge to 6 3 % of the input v oltage in 1 tim e constant, well if we raise the
input v oltage then 6 3 % of that v oltage is obv iously higher as well m eaning the transistor will take less
tim e to charge to the ON v oltage for the transistor. So the higher v oltage doesn't m ake switching easier,
but rather faster. Mark Oct 2 5 '1 0 at 2 1 :2 9
I m eant faster when I said easier. Let m e correct that and add y our extra quote. Kortuk Oct 2 5 '1 0 at
2 1 :3 2

The part about why increased v oltage decrease switching tim e is not correct. The threshold of the CMOS
gate will change with supply v oltage too (and within reasonable supply range will be m ore or less equal
to constant fraction of the supply - for exam ple 50%). As percentage change of the v oltage do not depend
on the supply (one RC will alway s be ~6 3 % regardless supply ) this is not the reason why supply does
m eter. With increased supply driv e capability of the MOS transistor also increases (bigger Vgs). That
m eans that actual R from RC decreases and that is why gate is faster. m azurnification Jan 2 5 '1 1 at
1 9 :3 6
@m azurnification, I honestly could not rem em ber why , and took what som eone said they knew. I figured
it som eone knew better they would com e drop it. Your explanation m akes sense to m e and I hav e edited it
in. Kortuk Jan 2 8 '1 1 at 1 9 :1 7

In general, CMOS gates only use current when they switch states. So the faster the clock speed
is, the more often gates are switching, thus more current is switched, and more power is
consumed.

answered Oct 2 5 '1 0 at 1 8:53

tcrosley
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This does not m ake sense if y ou think about it. Consider an arbitrary com putation requiring som e 1 0 clock
cy cles to com plete. If y our operating frequency is 1 0Hz, then it takes one second to finish and y ou hav e
consum ed howev er m uch energy was required in the process. Howev er, if y our clock frequency was just
1 Hz, it would take 1 0 seconds (1 0 tim es longer), but at each clock y ou would only consum e 1 /1 0 the
am ount of energy - energy consum ption is directly proptional to switching frequency . Therefore the
ov erall power consum ption is precicely the sam e. sherrellbc Aug 6 at 1 3 :3 3
So really , m ore power per time is being consum ed at higher frequencies, but ov erall there is no net either
way . sherrellbc Aug 6 at 1 4 :02

@sherrellbc For that one calculation, the power would be the sam e whether it was stretched out ov er 1 0
seconds at a lower frequency or executed in one second at a higher frequency . In fact this principal is used
to sav e power in battery -operated dev ices. But the power for one second at high frequency is 1 0 tim es the
power in one second at low frequency -- that's why the chip gets hot at the higher frequency , and requires
1 0 tim es as m uch power to driv e it. tcrosley Aug 6 at 1 6 :3 1
That was precisely m y point. The power consum ed per time is increased and consequentially the dev ice is
going to heat up as this energy is expended. I was m erely stating that the ov erall power consum ption
when com pared on lev el ground (i.e. equiv alent com putation com pleted on both dev ices) will be exactly
the sam e. The higher frequency dev ice is going to heat up m ore since the heat has less tim e to disspitate
than in the latter slower operating dev ice. I suppose in short the point is sim ply that both dev ices would
consum e exactly the sam e energy just ov er different tim e interv als. sherrellbc Aug 7 at 1 2 :06

Well, it's all about logic level transitions.

When any single bit of an output changes... the electrical value must slew from high to low, or
low to high. This pulls power from the power supply, or dumps some power back onto the
ground plane. It also generates a little waste heat due to inefficiencies.
If you increase the clock rate, you increase the number of these transitions per unit time,
therefore you use more power to feed these logic level transitions.
Increased voltage requirements are a little different. The time it takes a signal to transition
from low to high is called the rise time. To safely operate at any given frequency the logic must
be able to consistently make this transition before the next clock samples the new value. At a
certain point, the logic will not be able to meet the rise time requirements of a particular
frequency. This is where upping the voltage will help, as it decreases rise time.
Heat is fairly simple. The chip is designed to handle a certain amount of heat generated by a
certain clock rate. Increase the number of transitions by increasing the clock rate, and you're
going to get more waste heat. When overclocking, you can easily outpace the cooling system's
ability to remove that heat.
answered Oct 2 5 '1 0 at 1 8:53
darron
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Think of a basic RC circuit where the R and C are in parallel. Our goal is to have a clock at the
output of this circuit - a 0-5V 1KHz square wave. So when we want the clock to be high we
turn on our voltage source and it charges up the capacitor until the output is at 5V, and when
we want 0V we turn it off and let it discharge. The charge/discharge time is determined by the
RC constant of the circuit. There's a problem - the circuit doesn't charge up quick enough for a
1KHz clock. What do I do?
We can't change the RC constant of the circuit - it's fixed. So we have to charge the capacitor
up quicker somehow, but still have the same charged voltage. To do this we need an active
circuit that monitors the output voltage of the RC circuit and varies the current going into the
capacitor to charge it up quicker. More current means more power.
When you want a faster clock, you need to charge up the capacitor faster. Y ou charge up a
capacitor by pushing current into it. Current * voltage = power. Y ou need more power!
Everything in a digital system is tied to the clock and everything has capacitance. If you have
100 TTL chips on one clock it has to drive a lot of current to charge all of them, then draw a lot
of current to pull them down. The fundamental reason ohms law isn't holding is

because these are active devices, not passive. They do electrical work to force the clock to
be as close to a perfect square wave as possible.
If you overclock a microcontroller it gets hot
Y es - quicker change means more current flowing and power is voltage * current. Even if
voltage stays the same, current used increases, so more power dissipation, more heat.
If you overclock a microcontroller it needs more voltage
Partially true - it needs more power, not necessarily more voltage. The microcontroller is in
some way converting the extra voltage to more current to achieve its needs.
As far as I know, the frequency of AC has nothing to do with its voltage or power, and a
clock is just a super-position of a DC and a (square) AC. Frequency doesn't affect the DC.
Only for a purely resistive load. There's a lot of trickery happening with AC power.
Is there some equation relating clock frequency and voltage or clock frequency and power?
Probably not a consistent one, but it's related to the simple equations Q=CV, V=I*R, P=I*V
Just remember: Higher frequency => faster rise time => must fill up capacitors quicker =>
more charge => more current => more power.
answered Oct 2 5 '1 0 at 1 8:51
Angry EE
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I think it is m ore accurate to say y ou are filling and em pty ing them m ore often, not to saw y ou are doing
it faster. It is only when y ou get close to their frequency y ou increase v oltage. Kortuk Oct 2 7 '1 0 at
1 :3 4
I think y ou know what y ou are say ing, but I just wanted to be clear in a com m ent about how y ou were
com paring it. Kortuk Oct 2 7 '1 0 at 1 :3 4
At higher frequency y ou HAVE to do it faster - y ou can't afford a slow ram p because y our square wav e
m ay turn into a triangle wav e if it's too slow. Doing it m ore often also m akes it worse but that's AC power,
and it confuses m e :) Angry EE Oct 2 7 '1 0 at 1 3 :05