[userbinator]

1.5V was the normal operating voltage of the 130nm "Northwood" Pentium 4s. For 65nm processors it's usually around 1.3-1.4. The problem with high voltages is that while the CPU may appear to work fine for a while, it may start becoming unstable and then suddenly die.

Part of me wonders whether the CPU manufacturers decided to, after a very long period of being conservative with lifetime and seeing their products last too long to their liking combined with the diminishing increases in performance with each new model, go all-out with voltages that are guaranteed to cause failure as long as they could make almost all of them happen just outside of warranty; not unlike what the LED lighting market has done.