Rafael Vanoni wrote: > On 10/28/08 14:38, Mario Goebbels wrote: >> I see this in Powertop attached to various idling applications, for >> instance Firefox or MPD. Their wakeup counts usually match that of >> genunix`clock. What does that mean, especially in regards to power >> management? >> >> Thanks, -mg > > Those reports are for callouts scheduled by these apps. Callouts are > managed through timeout(9F) and alike, and execute a > particular function > after a specified amount of time. One example of that is for polling. > > It affects power management in that the system might need to wake the > CPU up, or raise it to a higher operating level. Possibly > consuming more > power. > > Rafael
Yes, polling could wake the CPU up and become a reason to eat power. A story is, when powertop released, many open source and free software programs, such as Mozilla Firefox, have been patched to reduce their power consumption. Thanks, -Aubrey
