Vinay Devadas wrote:
> Hi Mark,
>
> I am Vinay, working on the Turbo Mode RFE on PowerTop.
>
> So this means that, when a *Turbo Mode supported* processor runs at P0, then 
> it may actually be running at some frequency *greater than or equal to its P1 
> frequency (2400 in the example)*. So using APERF/MPERF will help us determine 
> the average frequency in P0 for such conditions. Is that correct ?
>   

Yes, I believe that is correct.

Mark

> Thanks,
> Vinay  
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Mark Haywood <Mark.Haywood at Sun.COM>
> Date: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 12:21 pm
> Subject: Re: [tesla-dev] Question on PowerTop V 1.1
> To: Eric Saxe <Eric.Saxe at Sun.COM>
> Cc: Vinay Devadas <Vinay.Devadas at Sun.COM>, tesla-dev at opensolaris.org
>
>
>   
>> Eric Saxe wrote:
>>     
>>> Mark Haywood wrote:
>>>       
>>>> No. When it runs at P0, then the minimum frequency it will operate 
>>>>         
>> at 
>>     
>>>> is 2400MHz. But it is very likely to run faster than that and yes, 
>>>>         
>> I 
>>     
>>>> believe it may even run faster than 2401MHz. So, the "average 
>>>> frequency" as far as I know is the average speed while in P0. I 
>>>> believe that the APERF/MPERF registers will be used to determine 
>>>>         
>> the 
>>     
>>>> average frequency. But I'm not working on that, so maybe I should 
>>>>         
>> let 
>>     
>>>> someone else answer that. ;-)
>>>>   
>>>>         
>>> Is it the case here that there's essentially two "P0" states being 
>>> enumerated by ACPI (One for turbo mode enabled, and one for disabled)?
>>>       
>> It depends what you mean by P0 states. By definition, P0 is the first 
>>
>> P-state returned when evaluating the _PSS. The P0 frequency for Turbo 
>>
>> Mode enabled systems is always supposed to be defined as the P1 
>> frequency + 1MHz.
>>
>> If you were to disable Turbo Mode (assuming the BIOS gives you the 
>> option), then I believe you would find your supported_frequencies_Hz 
>> to be:
>>
>> 800000000:1200000000:1600000000:2000000000:2400000000
>>
>> Why did Intel define the Turbo Mode P-state P0 this way you ask? I 
>> suspect that they did it this way so that an OS could basically 
>> support 
>> Turbo Mode without any modifications. An OS that is totally ignorant 
>> of 
>> Turbo Mode will still request Turbo Mode (by requesting P0) when the 
>> CPUs are heavily utilized at P1 (not yet over clocked). That means 
>> existing Windows, Linux and other OSes that have been in the can long 
>>
>> before Turbo Mode existed can still take advantage of it.
>>
>>     
>>> This is what the cpu_info kstat is showing on Kuriakose's laptop 
>>> (thanks Vinay):
>>>
>>> supported_frequencies_Hz
>>> 800000000:1200000000:1600000000:2000000000:2400000000:2401000000
>>>
>>> I'm wondering what the essential difference is between the 2400 
>>>       
>> state 
>>     
>>> and the 2401 state (besides 1 MHz, and i'm guessing that's not even 
>>>       
>>> the difference)...
>>>       
>> The 2401 state says feel free to run 2400 or faster if conditions allow.
>>
>> Mark
>>
>>     
>>> Thanks,
>>> -Eric
>>>       
>> _______________________________________________
>> tesla-dev mailing list
>> tesla-dev at opensolaris.org
>> http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/tesla-dev
>>     
> _______________________________________________
> tesla-dev mailing list
> tesla-dev at opensolaris.org
> http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/tesla-dev
>   


Reply via email to