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Date:      Fri, 27 Oct 2006 18:45:22 +1000 (EST)
From:      Ian Smith <smithi@nimnet.asn.au>
To:        Kevin Oberman <oberman@es.net>
Cc:        acpi@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: powerd: add support for limiting cpu frequency on adaptive mode
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.3.96.1061027175636.1051A-100000@gaia.nimnet.asn.au>
In-Reply-To: <20061026204328.C764F4504D@ptavv.es.net>

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On Thu, 26 Oct 2006, Kevin Oberman wrote:

 > > Can someone look on the pr
 > > (http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=bin/104689) I sent. Maybe
 > > the patch is dirty but I think that idea is nice and with it battery
 > > lives really longer.
 > 
 > YES! When I am on battery for an extended time, I am very happy to have
 > the system max out at a MUCH lower speed if I can keep basic capabilities
 > for simple stuff like editing and such. Slight slow-downs are not an
 > issue.

The problem I see with this patch as it stands is that it affects both
battery and AC power adaptive modes (ie, powerd default operating mode)

Stepan says in the PR:

 "Apply the patch and run powerd:
 powerd -a maximum -b adaptive -m 558
 Where 558 is maximum frequency on adaptive mode"

I want to run adaptive mode on 'AC' both because it uses half the power
when idle and greatly reduces the laptop's temperature (Thinkpad T23). 
'AC' in quotes, this being a 100% solar power home; every watt counts. 

Were the -m switch function ANDed with (acline_status = SRC_BATTERY) or
perhaps, allowing for SRC_UNKNOWN, (acline_status != SRC_AC) then you
could still use adaptive mode at full speed on 'AC' when required and
take advantage of setting a maximum speed while running on battery? 

 > That said, power consumption is NOT intuitive. If I am playing an MP3
 > (very constant CPU load) at  a speed where the CPU is at about 80%, the
 > system uses more power than when the CPU is at 30%. In either case, the
 > MP3 playback is fine. (This was on my T30 with a 1.8G P4M CPU, so it's
 > not the best for power use.)

The T23 is only a two-speed P3M (1133/733) so I've yet to see the full
potential of powerd, nor have I played with its idle/busy shift points
or examined hysteresis between load shift points at various freqs, but
it's already a Very Good Thing here ..

 > I know that Windows wants to reduce maximum CPU speed when running on
 > battery, so I do believe this is a good thing.

If limited to while running on battery only, I'd heartily agree. 
Meanwhile of course you can run powerd -b min though that might be
overkill if you have lots of freqs available .. 

Cheers, Ian




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