Iain McClatchie (iain.delete@this.mcclatchie.com) on January 7, 2013 12:28 am wrote:
> David,
>
> It turns out the Vt goes down at higher temperatures (Wikipedia has some coverage). That
> means the processor can run a little faster as it gets hotter. It also means that subthreshold
> leakage increases at higher temperatures, which can lead to thermal runaway.
>
> This effect used to be dominated by the higher wire resistance at higher temperature that you cover
> in your article. Supply voltages have been coming down, and threshold voltages have not been changing
> much (at least for the leak-stop transistors). As a result, the temperature effect on voltage threshold
> has been steadily getting more important and it now dominates wire resistance in the latest commodity
> processes. The high-voltage, HIGH-temperature corner is now the fastest corner!
>
> Just a heads up.
>
> -Iain

Uh, ever hear of charge carrier mobility - go see how it varies with temperature.