The aim of this technology is to reduce overall power consumption and lower heat generation, allowing for slower (thus quieter) cooling fan operation.
The technology is similar to Intel's SpeedStep and AMD's own PowerNow!, which were developed with the aim of increasing laptop battery life by reducing power consumption.
This technology was also introduced on "e-stepping" Opterons, however it is called Optimized Power Management, which is essentially a re-tooled Cool'n'Quiet scheme designed to work with registered memory.
With earlier versions of Windows, processor drivers along with Cool'n'Quiet software also need to be installed.
[6] In addition to the CPU drivers offered by AMD, several motherboard manufacturers have released software to give the end user more control over the Cool 'n' Quiet feature, as well as the other new features of AMD processors and chipsets.