From: Rafael J. Wysocki Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2017 22:59:57 +0000 (+0100) Subject: cpufreq: User/admin documentation update and consolidation X-Git-Url: https://git.stricted.de/?a=commitdiff_plain;h=2a0e49279850d28c450f27e51b419ce90bacdcdc;p=GitHub%2Fmoto-9609%2Fandroid_kernel_motorola_exynos9610.git cpufreq: User/admin documentation update and consolidation The user/admin documentation of cpufreq is badly outdated. It conains stale and/or inaccurate information along with things that are not particularly useful. Also, some of the important pieces are missing from it. For this reason, add a new user/admin document for cpufreq containing current information to admin-guide and drop the old outdated .txt documents it is replacing. Since there will be more PM documents in admin-guide going forward, create a separate directory for them and put the cpufreq document in there right away. Signed-off-by: Rafael J. Wysocki Acked-by: Viresh Kumar Signed-off-by: Jonathan Corbet --- diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/index.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/index.rst index 8ddae4e4299a..8c60a8a32a1a 100644 --- a/Documentation/admin-guide/index.rst +++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/index.rst @@ -60,6 +60,7 @@ configure specific aspects of kernel behavior to your liking. mono java ras + pm/index .. only:: subproject and html diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/pm/cpufreq.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/pm/cpufreq.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..289c80f7760e --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/pm/cpufreq.rst @@ -0,0 +1,700 @@ +.. |struct cpufreq_policy| replace:: :c:type:`struct cpufreq_policy ` + +======================= +CPU Performance Scaling +======================= + +:: + + Copyright (c) 2017 Intel Corp., Rafael J. Wysocki + +The Concept of CPU Performance Scaling +====================================== + +The majority of modern processors are capable of operating in a number of +different clock frequency and voltage configurations, often referred to as +Operating Performance Points or P-states (in ACPI terminology). As a rule, +the higher the clock frequency and the higher the voltage, the more instructions +can be retired by the CPU over a unit of time, but also the higher the clock +frequency and the higher the voltage, the more energy is consumed over a unit of +time (or the more power is drawn) by the CPU in the given P-state. Therefore +there is a natural tradeoff between the CPU capacity (the number of instructions +that can be executed over a unit of time) and the power drawn by the CPU. + +In some situations it is desirable or even necessary to run the program as fast +as possible and then there is no reason to use any P-states different from the +highest one (i.e. the highest-performance frequency/voltage configuration +available). In some other cases, however, it may not be necessary to execute +instructions so quickly and maintaining the highest available CPU capacity for a +relatively long time without utilizing it entirely may be regarded as wasteful. +It also may not be physically possible to maintain maximum CPU capacity for too +long for thermal or power supply capacity reasons or similar. To cover those +cases, there are hardware interfaces allowing CPUs to be switched between +different frequency/voltage configurations or (in the ACPI terminology) to be +put into different P-states. + +Typically, they are used along with algorithms to estimate the required CPU +capacity, so as to decide which P-states to put the CPUs into. Of course, since +the utilization of the system generally changes over time, that has to be done +repeatedly on a regular basis. The activity by which this happens is referred +to as CPU performance scaling or CPU frequency scaling (because it involves +adjusting the CPU clock frequency). + + +CPU Performance Scaling in Linux +================================ + +The Linux kernel supports CPU performance scaling by means of the ``CPUFreq`` +(CPU Frequency scaling) subsystem that consists of three layers of code: the +core, scaling governors and scaling drivers. + +The ``CPUFreq`` core provides the common code infrastructure and user space +interfaces for all platforms that support CPU performance scaling. It defines +the basic framework in which the other components operate. + +Scaling governors implement algorithms to estimate the required CPU capacity. +As a rule, each governor implements one, possibly parametrized, scaling +algorithm. + +Scaling drivers talk to the hardware. They provide scaling governors with +information on the available P-states (or P-state ranges in some cases) and +access platform-specific hardware interfaces to change CPU P-states as requested +by scaling governors. + +In principle, all available scaling governors can be used with every scaling +driver. That design is based on the observation that the information used by +performance scaling algorithms for P-state selection can be represented in a +platform-independent form in the majority of cases, so it should be possible +to use the same performance scaling algorithm implemented in exactly the same +way regardless of which scaling driver is used. Consequently, the same set of +scaling governors should be suitable for every supported platform. + +However, that observation may not hold for performance scaling algorithms +based on information provided by the hardware itself, for example through +feedback registers, as that information is typically specific to the hardware +interface it comes from and may not be easily represented in an abstract, +platform-independent way. For this reason, ``CPUFreq`` allows scaling drivers +to bypass the governor layer and implement their own performance scaling +algorithms. That is done by the ``intel_pstate`` scaling driver. + + +``CPUFreq`` Policy Objects +========================== + +In some cases the hardware interface for P-state control is shared by multiple +CPUs. That is, for example, the same register (or set of registers) is used to +control the P-state of multiple CPUs at the same time and writing to it affects +all of those CPUs simultaneously. + +Sets of CPUs sharing hardware P-state control interfaces are represented by +``CPUFreq`` as |struct cpufreq_policy| objects. For consistency, +|struct cpufreq_policy| is also used when there is only one CPU in the given +set. + +The ``CPUFreq`` core maintains a pointer to a |struct cpufreq_policy| object for +every CPU in the system, including CPUs that are currently offline. If multiple +CPUs share the same hardware P-state control interface, all of the pointers +corresponding to them point to the same |struct cpufreq_policy| object. + +``CPUFreq`` uses |struct cpufreq_policy| as its basic data type and the design +of its user space interface is based on the policy concept. + + +CPU Initialization +================== + +First of all, a scaling driver has to be registered for ``CPUFreq`` to work. +It is only possible to register one scaling driver at a time, so the scaling +driver is expected to be able to handle all CPUs in the system. + +The scaling driver may be registered before or after CPU registration. If +CPUs are registered earlier, the driver core invokes the ``CPUFreq`` core to +take a note of all of the already registered CPUs during the registration of the +scaling driver. In turn, if any CPUs are registered after the registration of +the scaling driver, the ``CPUFreq`` core will be invoked to take note of them +at their registration time. + +In any case, the ``CPUFreq`` core is invoked to take note of any logical CPU it +has not seen so far as soon as it is ready to handle that CPU. [Note that the +logical CPU may be a physical single-core processor, or a single core in a +multicore processor, or a hardware thread in a physical processor or processor +core. In what follows "CPU" always means "logical CPU" unless explicitly stated +otherwise and the word "processor" is used to refer to the physical part +possibly including multiple logical CPUs.] + +Once invoked, the ``CPUFreq`` core checks if the policy pointer is already set +for the given CPU and if so, it skips the policy object creation. Otherwise, +a new policy object is created and initialized, which involves the creation of +a new policy directory in ``sysfs``, and the policy pointer corresponding to +the given CPU is set to the new policy object's address in memory. + +Next, the scaling driver's ``->init()`` callback is invoked with the policy +pointer of the new CPU passed to it as the argument. That callback is expected +to initialize the performance scaling hardware interface for the given CPU (or, +more precisely, for the set of CPUs sharing the hardware interface it belongs +to, represented by its policy object) and, if the policy object it has been +called for is new, to set parameters of the policy, like the minimum and maximum +frequencies supported by the hardware, the table of available frequencies (if +the set of supported P-states is not a continuous range), and the mask of CPUs +that belong to the same policy (including both online and offline CPUs). That +mask is then used by the core to populate the policy pointers for all of the +CPUs in it. + +The next major initialization step for a new policy object is to attach a +scaling governor to it (to begin with, that is the default scaling governor +determined by the kernel configuration, but it may be changed later +via ``sysfs``). First, a pointer to the new policy object is passed to the +governor's ``->init()`` callback which is expected to initialize all of the +data structures necessary to handle the given policy and, possibly, to add +a governor ``sysfs`` interface to it. Next, the governor is started by +invoking its ``->start()`` callback. + +That callback it expected to register per-CPU utilization update callbacks for +all of the online CPUs belonging to the given policy with the CPU scheduler. +The utilization update callbacks will be invoked by the CPU scheduler on +important events, like task enqueue and dequeue, on every iteration of the +scheduler tick or generally whenever the CPU utilization may change (from the +scheduler's perspective). They are expected to carry out computations needed +to determine the P-state to use for the given policy going forward and to +invoke the scaling driver to make changes to the hardware in accordance with +the P-state selection. The scaling driver may be invoked directly from +scheduler context or asynchronously, via a kernel thread or workqueue, depending +on the configuration and capabilities of the scaling driver and the governor. + +Similar steps are taken for policy objects that are not new, but were "inactive" +previously, meaning that all of the CPUs belonging to them were offline. The +only practical difference in that case is that the ``CPUFreq`` core will attempt +to use the scaling governor previously used with the policy that became +"inactive" (and is re-initialized now) instead of the default governor. + +In turn, if a previously offline CPU is being brought back online, but some +other CPUs sharing the policy object with it are online already, there is no +need to re-initialize the policy object at all. In that case, it only is +necessary to restart the scaling governor so that it can take the new online CPU +into account. That is achieved by invoking the governor's ``->stop`` and +``->start()`` callbacks, in this order, for the entire policy. + +As mentioned before, the ``intel_pstate`` scaling driver bypasses the scaling +governor layer of ``CPUFreq`` and provides its own P-state selection algorithms. +Consequently, if ``intel_pstate`` is used, scaling governors are not attached to +new policy objects. Instead, the driver's ``->setpolicy()`` callback is invoked +to register per-CPU utilization update callbacks for each policy. These +callbacks are invoked by the CPU scheduler in the same way as for scaling +governors, but in the ``intel_pstate`` case they both determine the P-state to +use and change the hardware configuration accordingly in one go from scheduler +context. + +The policy objects created during CPU initialization and other data structures +associated with them are torn down when the scaling driver is unregistered +(which happens when the kernel module containing it is unloaded, for example) or +when the last CPU belonging to the given policy in unregistered. + + +Policy Interface in ``sysfs`` +============================= + +During the initialization of the kernel, the ``CPUFreq`` core creates a +``sysfs`` directory (kobject) called ``cpufreq`` under +:file:`/sys/devices/system/cpu/`. + +That directory contains a ``policyX`` subdirectory (where ``X`` represents an +integer number) for every policy object maintained by the ``CPUFreq`` core. +Each ``policyX`` directory is pointed to by ``cpufreq`` symbolic links +under :file:`/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpuY/` (where ``Y`` represents an integer +that may be different from the one represented by ``X``) for all of the CPUs +associated with (or belonging to) the given policy. The ``policyX`` directories +in :file:`/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq` each contain policy-specific +attributes (files) to control ``CPUFreq`` behavior for the corresponding policy +objects (that is, for all of the CPUs associated with them). + +Some of those attributes are generic. They are created by the ``CPUFreq`` core +and their behavior generally does not depend on what scaling driver is in use +and what scaling governor is attached to the given policy. Some scaling drivers +also add driver-specific attributes to the policy directories in ``sysfs`` to +control policy-specific aspects of driver behavior. + +The generic attributes under :file:`/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/policyX/` +are the following: + +``affected_cpus`` + List of online CPUs belonging to this policy (i.e. sharing the hardware + performance scaling interface represented by the ``policyX`` policy + object). + +``bios_limit`` + If the platform firmware (BIOS) tells the OS to apply an upper limit to + CPU frequencies, that limit will be reported through this attribute (if + present). + + The existence of the limit may be a result of some (often unintentional) + BIOS settings, restrictions coming from a service processor or another + BIOS/HW-based mechanisms. + + This does not cover ACPI thermal limitations which can be discovered + through a generic thermal driver. + + This attribute is not present if the scaling driver in use does not + support it. + +``cpuinfo_max_freq`` + Maximum possible operating frequency the CPUs belonging to this policy + can run at (in kHz). + +``cpuinfo_min_freq`` + Minimum possible operating frequency the CPUs belonging to this policy + can run at (in kHz). + +``cpuinfo_transition_latency`` + The time it takes to switch the CPUs belonging to this policy from one + P-state to another, in nanoseconds. + + If unknown or if known to be so high that the scaling driver does not + work with the `ondemand`_ governor, -1 (:c:macro:`CPUFREQ_ETERNAL`) + will be returned by reads from this attribute. + +``related_cpus`` + List of all (online and offline) CPUs belonging to this policy. + +``scaling_available_governors`` + List of ``CPUFreq`` scaling governors present in the kernel that can + be attached to this policy or (if the ``intel_pstate`` scaling driver is + in use) list of scaling algorithms provided by the driver that can be + applied to this policy. + + [Note that some governors are modular and it may be necessary to load a + kernel module for the governor held by it to become available and be + listed by this attribute.] + +``scaling_cur_freq`` + Current frequency of all of the CPUs belonging to this policy (in kHz). + + For the majority of scaling drivers, this is the frequency of the last + P-state requested by the driver from the hardware using the scaling + interface provided by it, which may or may not reflect the frequency + the CPU is actually running at (due to hardware design and other + limitations). + + Some scaling drivers (e.g. ``intel_pstate``) attempt to provide + information more precisely reflecting the current CPU frequency through + this attribute, but that still may not be the exact current CPU + frequency as seen by the hardware at the moment. + +``scaling_driver`` + The scaling driver currently in use. + +``scaling_governor`` + The scaling governor currently attached to this policy or (if the + ``intel_pstate`` scaling driver is in use) the scaling algorithm + provided by the driver that is currently applied to this policy. + + This attribute is read-write and writing to it will cause a new scaling + governor to be attached to this policy or a new scaling algorithm + provided by the scaling driver to be applied to it (in the + ``intel_pstate`` case), as indicated by the string written to this + attribute (which must be one of the names listed by the + ``scaling_available_governors`` attribute described above). + +``scaling_max_freq`` + Maximum frequency the CPUs belonging to this policy are allowed to be + running at (in kHz). + + This attribute is read-write and writing a string representing an + integer to it will cause a new limit to be set (it must not be lower + than the value of the ``scaling_min_freq`` attribute). + +``scaling_min_freq`` + Minimum frequency the CPUs belonging to this policy are allowed to be + running at (in kHz). + + This attribute is read-write and writing a string representing a + non-negative integer to it will cause a new limit to be set (it must not + be higher than the value of the ``scaling_max_freq`` attribute). + +``scaling_setspeed`` + This attribute is functional only if the `userspace`_ scaling governor + is attached to the given policy. + + It returns the last frequency requested by the governor (in kHz) or can + be written to in order to set a new frequency for the policy. + + +Generic Scaling Governors +========================= + +``CPUFreq`` provides generic scaling governors that can be used with all +scaling drivers. As stated before, each of them implements a single, possibly +parametrized, performance scaling algorithm. + +Scaling governors are attached to policy objects and different policy objects +can be handled by different scaling governors at the same time (although that +may lead to suboptimal results in some cases). + +The scaling governor for a given policy object can be changed at any time with +the help of the ``scaling_governor`` policy attribute in ``sysfs``. + +Some governors expose ``sysfs`` attributes to control or fine-tune the scaling +algorithms implemented by them. Those attributes, referred to as governor +tunables, can be either global (system-wide) or per-policy, depending on the +scaling driver in use. If the driver requires governor tunables to be +per-policy, they are located in a subdirectory of each policy directory. +Otherwise, they are located in a subdirectory under +:file:`/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/`. In either case the name of the +subdirectory containing the governor tunables is the name of the governor +providing them. + +``performance`` +--------------- + +When attached to a policy object, this governor causes the highest frequency, +within the ``scaling_max_freq`` policy limit, to be requested for that policy. + +The request is made once at that time the governor for the policy is set to +``performance`` and whenever the ``scaling_max_freq`` or ``scaling_min_freq`` +policy limits change after that. + +``powersave`` +------------- + +When attached to a policy object, this governor causes the lowest frequency, +within the ``scaling_min_freq`` policy limit, to be requested for that policy. + +The request is made once at that time the governor for the policy is set to +``powersave`` and whenever the ``scaling_max_freq`` or ``scaling_min_freq`` +policy limits change after that. + +``userspace`` +------------- + +This governor does not do anything by itself. Instead, it allows user space +to set the CPU frequency for the policy it is attached to by writing to the +``scaling_setspeed`` attribute of that policy. + +``schedutil`` +------------- + +This governor uses CPU utilization data available from the CPU scheduler. It +generally is regarded as a part of the CPU scheduler, so it can access the +scheduler's internal data structures directly. + +It runs entirely in scheduler context, although in some cases it may need to +invoke the scaling driver asynchronously when it decides that the CPU frequency +should be changed for a given policy (that depends on whether or not the driver +is capable of changing the CPU frequency from scheduler context). + +The actions of this governor for a particular CPU depend on the scheduling class +invoking its utilization update callback for that CPU. If it is invoked by the +RT or deadline scheduling classes, the governor will increase the frequency to +the allowed maximum (that is, the ``scaling_max_freq`` policy limit). In turn, +if it is invoked by the CFS scheduling class, the governor will use the +Per-Entity Load Tracking (PELT) metric for the root control group of the +given CPU as the CPU utilization estimate (see the `Per-entity load tracking`_ +LWN.net article for a description of the PELT mechanism). Then, the new +CPU frequency to apply is computed in accordance with the formula + + f = 1.25 * ``f_0`` * ``util`` / ``max`` + +where ``util`` is the PELT number, ``max`` is the theoretical maximum of +``util``, and ``f_0`` is either the maximum possible CPU frequency for the given +policy (if the PELT number is frequency-invariant), or the current CPU frequency +(otherwise). + +This governor also employs a mechanism allowing it to temporarily bump up the +CPU frequency for tasks that have been waiting on I/O most recently, called +"IO-wait boosting". That happens when the :c:macro:`SCHED_CPUFREQ_IOWAIT` flag +is passed by the scheduler to the governor callback which causes the frequency +to go up to the allowed maximum immediately and then draw back to the value +returned by the above formula over time. + +This governor exposes only one tunable: + +``rate_limit_us`` + Minimum time (in microseconds) that has to pass between two consecutive + runs of governor computations (default: 1000 times the scaling driver's + transition latency). + + The purpose of this tunable is to reduce the scheduler context overhead + of the governor which might be excessive without it. + +This governor generally is regarded as a replacement for the older `ondemand`_ +and `conservative`_ governors (described below), as it is simpler and more +tightly integrated with the CPU scheduler, its overhead in terms of CPU context +switches and similar is less significant, and it uses the scheduler's own CPU +utilization metric, so in principle its decisions should not contradict the +decisions made by the other parts of the scheduler. + +``ondemand`` +------------ + +This governor uses CPU load as a CPU frequency selection metric. + +In order to estimate the current CPU load, it measures the time elapsed between +consecutive invocations of its worker routine and computes the fraction of that +time in which the given CPU was not idle. The ratio of the non-idle (active) +time to the total CPU time is taken as an estimate of the load. + +If this governor is attached to a policy shared by multiple CPUs, the load is +estimated for all of them and the greatest result is taken as the load estimate +for the entire policy. + +The worker routine of this governor has to run in process context, so it is +invoked asynchronously (via a workqueue) and CPU P-states are updated from +there if necessary. As a result, the scheduler context overhead from this +governor is minimum, but it causes additional CPU context switches to happen +relatively often and the CPU P-state updates triggered by it can be relatively +irregular. Also, it affects its own CPU load metric by running code that +reduces the CPU idle time (even though the CPU idle time is only reduced very +slightly by it). + +It generally selects CPU frequencies proportional to the estimated load, so that +the value of the ``cpuinfo_max_freq`` policy attribute corresponds to the load of +1 (or 100%), and the value of the ``cpuinfo_min_freq`` policy attribute +corresponds to the load of 0, unless when the load exceeds a (configurable) +speedup threshold, in which case it will go straight for the highest frequency +it is allowed to use (the ``scaling_max_freq`` policy limit). + +This governor exposes the following tunables: + +``sampling_rate`` + This is how often the governor's worker routine should run, in + microseconds. + + Typically, it is set to values of the order of 10000 (10 ms). Its + default value is equal to the value of ``cpuinfo_transition_latency`` + for each policy this governor is attached to (but since the unit here + is greater by 1000, this means that the time represented by + ``sampling_rate`` is 1000 times greater than the transition latency by + default). + + If this tunable is per-policy, the following shell command sets the time + represented by it to be 750 times as high as the transition latency:: + + # echo `$(($(cat cpuinfo_transition_latency) * 750 / 1000)) > ondemand/sampling_rate + + +``min_sampling_rate`` + The minimum value of ``sampling_rate``. + + Equal to 10000 (10 ms) if :c:macro:`CONFIG_NO_HZ_COMMON` and + :c:data:`tick_nohz_active` are both set or to 20 times the value of + :c:data:`jiffies` in microseconds otherwise. + +``up_threshold`` + If the estimated CPU load is above this value (in percent), the governor + will set the frequency to the maximum value allowed for the policy. + Otherwise, the selected frequency will be proportional to the estimated + CPU load. + +``ignore_nice_load`` + If set to 1 (default 0), it will cause the CPU load estimation code to + treat the CPU time spent on executing tasks with "nice" levels greater + than 0 as CPU idle time. + + This may be useful if there are tasks in the system that should not be + taken into account when deciding what frequency to run the CPUs at. + Then, to make that happen it is sufficient to increase the "nice" level + of those tasks above 0 and set this attribute to 1. + +``sampling_down_factor`` + Temporary multiplier, between 1 (default) and 100 inclusive, to apply to + the ``sampling_rate`` value if the CPU load goes above ``up_threshold``. + + This causes the next execution of the governor's worker routine (after + setting the frequency to the allowed maximum) to be delayed, so the + frequency stays at the maximum level for a longer time. + + Frequency fluctuations in some bursty workloads may be avoided this way + at the cost of additional energy spent on maintaining the maximum CPU + capacity. + +``powersave_bias`` + Reduction factor to apply to the original frequency target of the + governor (including the maximum value used when the ``up_threshold`` + value is exceeded by the estimated CPU load) or sensitivity threshold + for the AMD frequency sensitivity powersave bias driver + (:file:`drivers/cpufreq/amd_freq_sensitivity.c`), between 0 and 1000 + inclusive. + + If the AMD frequency sensitivity powersave bias driver is not loaded, + the effective frequency to apply is given by + + f * (1 - ``powersave_bias`` / 1000) + + where f is the governor's original frequency target. The default value + of this attribute is 0 in that case. + + If the AMD frequency sensitivity powersave bias driver is loaded, the + value of this attribute is 400 by default and it is used in a different + way. + + On Family 16h (and later) AMD processors there is a mechanism to get a + measured workload sensitivity, between 0 and 100% inclusive, from the + hardware. That value can be used to estimate how the performance of the + workload running on a CPU will change in response to frequency changes. + + The performance of a workload with the sensitivity of 0 (memory-bound or + IO-bound) is not expected to increase at all as a result of increasing + the CPU frequency, whereas workloads with the sensitivity of 100% + (CPU-bound) are expected to perform much better if the CPU frequency is + increased. + + If the workload sensitivity is less than the threshold represented by + the ``powersave_bias`` value, the sensitivity powersave bias driver + will cause the governor to select a frequency lower than its original + target, so as to avoid over-provisioning workloads that will not benefit + from running at higher CPU frequencies. + +``conservative`` +---------------- + +This governor uses CPU load as a CPU frequency selection metric. + +It estimates the CPU load in the same way as the `ondemand`_ governor described +above, but the CPU frequency selection algorithm implemented by it is different. + +Namely, it avoids changing the frequency significantly over short time intervals +which may not be suitable for systems with limited power supply capacity (e.g. +battery-powered). To achieve that, it changes the frequency in relatively +small steps, one step at a time, up or down - depending on whether or not a +(configurable) threshold has been exceeded by the estimated CPU load. + +This governor exposes the following tunables: + +``freq_step`` + Frequency step in percent of the maximum frequency the governor is + allowed to set (the ``scaling_max_freq`` policy limit), between 0 and + 100 (5 by default). + + This is how much the frequency is allowed to change in one go. Setting + it to 0 will cause the default frequency step (5 percent) to be used + and setting it to 100 effectively causes the governor to periodically + switch the frequency between the ``scaling_min_freq`` and + ``scaling_max_freq`` policy limits. + +``down_threshold`` + Threshold value (in percent, 20 by default) used to determine the + frequency change direction. + + If the estimated CPU load is greater than this value, the frequency will + go up (by ``freq_step``). If the load is less than this value (and the + ``sampling_down_factor`` mechanism is not in effect), the frequency will + go down. Otherwise, the frequency will not be changed. + +``sampling_down_factor`` + Frequency decrease deferral factor, between 1 (default) and 10 + inclusive. + + It effectively causes the frequency to go down ``sampling_down_factor`` + times slower than it ramps up. + + +Frequency Boost Support +======================= + +Background +---------- + +Some processors support a mechanism to raise the operating frequency of some +cores in a multicore package temporarily (and above the sustainable frequency +threshold for the whole package) under certain conditions, for example if the +whole chip is not fully utilized and below its intended thermal or power budget. + +Different names are used by different vendors to refer to this functionality. +For Intel processors it is referred to as "Turbo Boost", AMD calls it +"Turbo-Core" or (in technical documentation) "Core Performance Boost" and so on. +As a rule, it also is implemented differently by different vendors. The simple +term "frequency boost" is used here for brevity to refer to all of those +implementations. + +The frequency boost mechanism may be either hardware-based or software-based. +If it is hardware-based (e.g. on x86), the decision to trigger the boosting is +made by the hardware (although in general it requires the hardware to be put +into a special state in which it can control the CPU frequency within certain +limits). If it is software-based (e.g. on ARM), the scaling driver decides +whether or not to trigger boosting and when to do that. + +The ``boost`` File in ``sysfs`` +------------------------------- + +This file is located under :file:`/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/` and controls +the "boost" setting for the whole system. It is not present if the underlying +scaling driver does not support the frequency boost mechanism (or supports it, +but provides a driver-specific interface for controlling it, like +``intel_pstate``). + +If the value in this file is 1, the frequency boost mechanism is enabled. This +means that either the hardware can be put into states in which it is able to +trigger boosting (in the hardware-based case), or the software is allowed to +trigger boosting (in the software-based case). It does not mean that boosting +is actually in use at the moment on any CPUs in the system. It only means a +permission to use the frequency boost mechanism (which still may never be used +for other reasons). + +If the value in this file is 0, the frequency boost mechanism is disabled and +cannot be used at all. + +The only values that can be written to this file are 0 and 1. + +Rationale for Boost Control Knob +-------------------------------- + +The frequency boost mechanism is generally intended to help to achieve optimum +CPU performance on time scales below software resolution (e.g. below the +scheduler tick interval) and it is demonstrably suitable for many workloads, but +it may lead to problems in certain situations. + +For this reason, many systems make it possible to disable the frequency boost +mechanism in the platform firmware (BIOS) setup, but that requires the system to +be restarted for the setting to be adjusted as desired, which may not be +practical at least in some cases. For example: + + 1. Boosting means overclocking the processor, although under controlled + conditions. Generally, the processor's energy consumption increases + as a result of increasing its frequency and voltage, even temporarily. + That may not be desirable on systems that switch to power sources of + limited capacity, such as batteries, so the ability to disable the boost + mechanism while the system is running may help there (but that depends on + the workload too). + + 2. In some situations deterministic behavior is more important than + performance or energy consumption (or both) and the ability to disable + boosting while the system is running may be useful then. + + 3. To examine the impact of the frequency boost mechanism itself, it is useful + to be able to run tests with and without boosting, preferably without + restarting the system in the meantime. + + 4. Reproducible results are important when running benchmarks. Since + the boosting functionality depends on the load of the whole package, + single-thread performance may vary because of it which may lead to + unreproducible results sometimes. That can be avoided by disabling the + frequency boost mechanism before running benchmarks sensitive to that + issue. + +Legacy AMD ``cpb`` Knob +----------------------- + +The AMD powernow-k8 scaling driver supports a ``sysfs`` knob very similar to +the global ``boost`` one. It is used for disabling/enabling the "Core +Performance Boost" feature of some AMD processors. + +If present, that knob is located in every ``CPUFreq`` policy directory in +``sysfs`` (:file:`/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/policyX/`) and is called +``cpb``, which indicates a more fine grained control interface. The actual +implementation, however, works on the system-wide basis and setting that knob +for one policy causes the same value of it to be set for all of the other +policies at the same time. + +That knob is still supported on AMD processors that support its underlying +hardware feature, but it may be configured out of the kernel (via the +:c:macro:`CONFIG_X86_ACPI_CPUFREQ_CPB` configuration option) and the global +``boost`` knob is present regardless. Thus it is always possible use the +``boost`` knob instead of the ``cpb`` one which is highly recommended, as that +is more consistent with what all of the other systems do (and the ``cpb`` knob +may not be supported any more in the future). + +The ``cpb`` knob is never present for any processors without the underlying +hardware feature (e.g. all Intel ones), even if the +:c:macro:`CONFIG_X86_ACPI_CPUFREQ_CPB` configuration option is set. + + +.. _Per-entity load tracking: https://lwn.net/Articles/531853/ diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/pm/index.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/pm/index.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..c80f087321fc --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/pm/index.rst @@ -0,0 +1,15 @@ +================ +Power Management +================ + +.. toctree:: + :maxdepth: 2 + + cpufreq + +.. only:: subproject and html + + Indices + ======= + + * :ref:`genindex` diff --git a/Documentation/cpu-freq/boost.txt b/Documentation/cpu-freq/boost.txt deleted file mode 100644 index dd62e1334f0a..000000000000 --- a/Documentation/cpu-freq/boost.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,93 +0,0 @@ -Processor boosting control - - - information for users - - -Quick guide for the impatient: --------------------- -/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/boost -controls the boost setting for the whole system. You can read and write -that file with either "0" (boosting disabled) or "1" (boosting allowed). -Reading or writing 1 does not mean that the system is boosting at this -very moment, but only that the CPU _may_ raise the frequency at it's -discretion. --------------------- - -Introduction -------------- -Some CPUs support a functionality to raise the operating frequency of -some cores in a multi-core package if certain conditions apply, mostly -if the whole chip is not fully utilized and below it's intended thermal -budget. The decision about boost disable/enable is made either at hardware -(e.g. x86) or software (e.g ARM). -On Intel CPUs this is called "Turbo Boost", AMD calls it "Turbo-Core", -in technical documentation "Core performance boost". In Linux we use -the term "boost" for convenience. - -Rationale for disable switch ----------------------------- - -Though the idea is to just give better performance without any user -intervention, sometimes the need arises to disable this functionality. -Most systems offer a switch in the (BIOS) firmware to disable the -functionality at all, but a more fine-grained and dynamic control would -be desirable: -1. While running benchmarks, reproducible results are important. Since - the boosting functionality depends on the load of the whole package, - single thread performance can vary. By explicitly disabling the boost - functionality at least for the benchmark's run-time the system will run - at a fixed frequency and results are reproducible again. -2. To examine the impact of the boosting functionality it is helpful - to do tests with and without boosting. -3. Boosting means overclocking the processor, though under controlled - conditions. By raising the frequency and the voltage the processor - will consume more power than without the boosting, which may be - undesirable for instance for mobile users. Disabling boosting may - save power here, though this depends on the workload. - - -User controlled switch ----------------------- - -To allow the user to toggle the boosting functionality, the cpufreq core -driver exports a sysfs knob to enable or disable it. There is a file: -/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/boost -which can either read "0" (boosting disabled) or "1" (boosting enabled). -The file is exported only when cpufreq driver supports boosting. -Explicitly changing the permissions and writing to that file anyway will -return EINVAL. - -On supported CPUs one can write either a "0" or a "1" into this file. -This will either disable the boost functionality on all cores in the -whole system (0) or will allow the software or hardware to boost at will -(1). - -Writing a "1" does not explicitly boost the system, but just allows the -CPU to boost at their discretion. Some implementations take external -factors like the chip's temperature into account, so boosting once does -not necessarily mean that it will occur every time even using the exact -same software setup. - - -AMD legacy cpb switch ---------------------- -The AMD powernow-k8 driver used to support a very similar switch to -disable or enable the "Core Performance Boost" feature of some AMD CPUs. -This switch was instantiated in each CPU's cpufreq directory -(/sys/devices/system/cpu[0-9]*/cpufreq) and was called "cpb". -Though the per CPU existence hints at a more fine grained control, the -actual implementation only supported a system-global switch semantics, -which was simply reflected into each CPU's file. Writing a 0 or 1 into it -would pull the other CPUs to the same state. -For compatibility reasons this file and its behavior is still supported -on AMD CPUs, though it is now protected by a config switch -(X86_ACPI_CPUFREQ_CPB). On Intel CPUs this file will never be created, -even with the config option set. -This functionality is considered legacy and will be removed in some future -kernel version. - -More fine grained boosting control ----------------------------------- - -Technically it is possible to switch the boosting functionality at least -on a per package basis, for some CPUs even per core. Currently the driver -does not support it, but this may be implemented in the future. diff --git a/Documentation/cpu-freq/governors.txt b/Documentation/cpu-freq/governors.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 61b3184b6c24..000000000000 --- a/Documentation/cpu-freq/governors.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,301 +0,0 @@ - CPU frequency and voltage scaling code in the Linux(TM) kernel - - - L i n u x C P U F r e q - - C P U F r e q G o v e r n o r s - - - information for users and developers - - - - Dominik Brodowski - some additions and corrections by Nico Golde - Rafael J. Wysocki - Viresh Kumar - - - - Clock scaling allows you to change the clock speed of the CPUs on the - fly. This is a nice method to save battery power, because the lower - the clock speed, the less power the CPU consumes. - - -Contents: ---------- -1. What is a CPUFreq Governor? - -2. Governors In the Linux Kernel -2.1 Performance -2.2 Powersave -2.3 Userspace -2.4 Ondemand -2.5 Conservative -2.6 Schedutil - -3. The Governor Interface in the CPUfreq Core - -4. References - - -1. What Is A CPUFreq Governor? -============================== - -Most cpufreq drivers (except the intel_pstate and longrun) or even most -cpu frequency scaling algorithms only allow the CPU frequency to be set -to predefined fixed values. In order to offer dynamic frequency -scaling, the cpufreq core must be able to tell these drivers of a -"target frequency". So these specific drivers will be transformed to -offer a "->target/target_index/fast_switch()" call instead of the -"->setpolicy()" call. For set_policy drivers, all stays the same, -though. - -How to decide what frequency within the CPUfreq policy should be used? -That's done using "cpufreq governors". - -Basically, it's the following flow graph: - -CPU can be set to switch independently | CPU can only be set - within specific "limits" | to specific frequencies - - "CPUfreq policy" - consists of frequency limits (policy->{min,max}) - and CPUfreq governor to be used - / \ - / \ - / the cpufreq governor decides - / (dynamically or statically) - / what target_freq to set within - / the limits of policy->{min,max} - / \ - / \ - Using the ->setpolicy call, Using the ->target/target_index/fast_switch call, - the limits and the the frequency closest - "policy" is set. to target_freq is set. - It is assured that it - is within policy->{min,max} - - -2. Governors In the Linux Kernel -================================ - -2.1 Performance ---------------- - -The CPUfreq governor "performance" sets the CPU statically to the -highest frequency within the borders of scaling_min_freq and -scaling_max_freq. - - -2.2 Powersave -------------- - -The CPUfreq governor "powersave" sets the CPU statically to the -lowest frequency within the borders of scaling_min_freq and -scaling_max_freq. - - -2.3 Userspace -------------- - -The CPUfreq governor "userspace" allows the user, or any userspace -program running with UID "root", to set the CPU to a specific frequency -by making a sysfs file "scaling_setspeed" available in the CPU-device -directory. - - -2.4 Ondemand ------------- - -The CPUfreq governor "ondemand" sets the CPU frequency depending on the -current system load. Load estimation is triggered by the scheduler -through the update_util_data->func hook; when triggered, cpufreq checks -the CPU-usage statistics over the last period and the governor sets the -CPU accordingly. The CPU must have the capability to switch the -frequency very quickly. - -Sysfs files: - -* sampling_rate: - - Measured in uS (10^-6 seconds), this is how often you want the kernel - to look at the CPU usage and to make decisions on what to do about the - frequency. Typically this is set to values of around '10000' or more. - It's default value is (cmp. with users-guide.txt): transition_latency - * 1000. Be aware that transition latency is in ns and sampling_rate - is in us, so you get the same sysfs value by default. Sampling rate - should always get adjusted considering the transition latency to set - the sampling rate 750 times as high as the transition latency in the - bash (as said, 1000 is default), do: - - $ echo `$(($(cat cpuinfo_transition_latency) * 750 / 1000)) > ondemand/sampling_rate - -* sampling_rate_min: - - The sampling rate is limited by the HW transition latency: - transition_latency * 100 - - Or by kernel restrictions: - - If CONFIG_NO_HZ_COMMON is set, the limit is 10ms fixed. - - If CONFIG_NO_HZ_COMMON is not set or nohz=off boot parameter is - used, the limits depend on the CONFIG_HZ option: - HZ=1000: min=20000us (20ms) - HZ=250: min=80000us (80ms) - HZ=100: min=200000us (200ms) - - The highest value of kernel and HW latency restrictions is shown and - used as the minimum sampling rate. - -* up_threshold: - - This defines what the average CPU usage between the samplings of - 'sampling_rate' needs to be for the kernel to make a decision on - whether it should increase the frequency. For example when it is set - to its default value of '95' it means that between the checking - intervals the CPU needs to be on average more than 95% in use to then - decide that the CPU frequency needs to be increased. - -* ignore_nice_load: - - This parameter takes a value of '0' or '1'. When set to '0' (its - default), all processes are counted towards the 'cpu utilisation' - value. When set to '1', the processes that are run with a 'nice' - value will not count (and thus be ignored) in the overall usage - calculation. This is useful if you are running a CPU intensive - calculation on your laptop that you do not care how long it takes to - complete as you can 'nice' it and prevent it from taking part in the - deciding process of whether to increase your CPU frequency. - -* sampling_down_factor: - - This parameter controls the rate at which the kernel makes a decision - on when to decrease the frequency while running at top speed. When set - to 1 (the default) decisions to reevaluate load are made at the same - interval regardless of current clock speed. But when set to greater - than 1 (e.g. 100) it acts as a multiplier for the scheduling interval - for reevaluating load when the CPU is at its top speed due to high - load. This improves performance by reducing the overhead of load - evaluation and helping the CPU stay at its top speed when truly busy, - rather than shifting back and forth in speed. This tunable has no - effect on behavior at lower speeds/lower CPU loads. - -* powersave_bias: - - This parameter takes a value between 0 to 1000. It defines the - percentage (times 10) value of the target frequency that will be - shaved off of the target. For example, when set to 100 -- 10%, when - ondemand governor would have targeted 1000 MHz, it will target - 1000 MHz - (10% of 1000 MHz) = 900 MHz instead. This is set to 0 - (disabled) by default. - - When AMD frequency sensitivity powersave bias driver -- - drivers/cpufreq/amd_freq_sensitivity.c is loaded, this parameter - defines the workload frequency sensitivity threshold in which a lower - frequency is chosen instead of ondemand governor's original target. - The frequency sensitivity is a hardware reported (on AMD Family 16h - Processors and above) value between 0 to 100% that tells software how - the performance of the workload running on a CPU will change when - frequency changes. A workload with sensitivity of 0% (memory/IO-bound) - will not perform any better on higher core frequency, whereas a - workload with sensitivity of 100% (CPU-bound) will perform better - higher the frequency. When the driver is loaded, this is set to 400 by - default -- for CPUs running workloads with sensitivity value below - 40%, a lower frequency is chosen. Unloading the driver or writing 0 - will disable this feature. - - -2.5 Conservative ----------------- - -The CPUfreq governor "conservative", much like the "ondemand" -governor, sets the CPU frequency depending on the current usage. It -differs in behaviour in that it gracefully increases and decreases the -CPU speed rather than jumping to max speed the moment there is any load -on the CPU. This behaviour is more suitable in a battery powered -environment. The governor is tweaked in the same manner as the -"ondemand" governor through sysfs with the addition of: - -* freq_step: - - This describes what percentage steps the cpu freq should be increased - and decreased smoothly by. By default the cpu frequency will increase - in 5% chunks of your maximum cpu frequency. You can change this value - to anywhere between 0 and 100 where '0' will effectively lock your CPU - at a speed regardless of its load whilst '100' will, in theory, make - it behave identically to the "ondemand" governor. - -* down_threshold: - - Same as the 'up_threshold' found for the "ondemand" governor but for - the opposite direction. For example when set to its default value of - '20' it means that if the CPU usage needs to be below 20% between - samples to have the frequency decreased. - -* sampling_down_factor: - - Similar functionality as in "ondemand" governor. But in - "conservative", it controls the rate at which the kernel makes a - decision on when to decrease the frequency while running in any speed. - Load for frequency increase is still evaluated every sampling rate. - - -2.6 Schedutil -------------- - -The "schedutil" governor aims at better integration with the Linux -kernel scheduler. Load estimation is achieved through the scheduler's -Per-Entity Load Tracking (PELT) mechanism, which also provides -information about the recent load [1]. This governor currently does -load based DVFS only for tasks managed by CFS. RT and DL scheduler tasks -are always run at the highest frequency. Unlike all the other -governors, the code is located under the kernel/sched/ directory. - -Sysfs files: - -* rate_limit_us: - - This contains a value in microseconds. The governor waits for - rate_limit_us time before reevaluating the load again, after it has - evaluated the load once. - -For an in-depth comparison with the other governors refer to [2]. - - -3. The Governor Interface in the CPUfreq Core -============================================= - -A new governor must register itself with the CPUfreq core using -"cpufreq_register_governor". The struct cpufreq_governor, which has to -be passed to that function, must contain the following values: - -governor->name - A unique name for this governor. -governor->owner - .THIS_MODULE for the governor module (if appropriate). - -plus a set of hooks to the functions implementing the governor's logic. - -The CPUfreq governor may call the CPU processor driver using one of -these two functions: - -int cpufreq_driver_target(struct cpufreq_policy *policy, - unsigned int target_freq, - unsigned int relation); - -int __cpufreq_driver_target(struct cpufreq_policy *policy, - unsigned int target_freq, - unsigned int relation); - -target_freq must be within policy->min and policy->max, of course. -What's the difference between these two functions? When your governor is -in a direct code path of a call to governor callbacks, like -governor->start(), the policy->rwsem is still held in the cpufreq core, -and there's no need to lock it again (in fact, this would cause a -deadlock). So use __cpufreq_driver_target only in these cases. In all -other cases (for example, when there's a "daemonized" function that -wakes up every second), use cpufreq_driver_target to take policy->rwsem -before the command is passed to the cpufreq driver. - -4. References -============= - -[1] Per-entity load tracking: https://lwn.net/Articles/531853/ -[2] Improvements in CPU frequency management: https://lwn.net/Articles/682391/ - diff --git a/Documentation/cpu-freq/index.txt b/Documentation/cpu-freq/index.txt index ef1d39247b05..03a7cee6ac73 100644 --- a/Documentation/cpu-freq/index.txt +++ b/Documentation/cpu-freq/index.txt @@ -21,8 +21,6 @@ Documents in this directory: amd-powernow.txt - AMD powernow driver specific file. -boost.txt - Frequency boosting support. - core.txt - General description of the CPUFreq core and of CPUFreq notifiers. @@ -32,17 +30,12 @@ cpufreq-nforce2.txt - nVidia nForce2 platform specific file. cpufreq-stats.txt - General description of sysfs cpufreq stats. -governors.txt - What are cpufreq governors and how to - implement them? - index.txt - File index, Mailing list and Links (this document) intel-pstate.txt - Intel pstate cpufreq driver specific file. pcc-cpufreq.txt - PCC cpufreq driver specific file. -user-guide.txt - User Guide to CPUFreq - Mailing List ------------ diff --git a/Documentation/cpu-freq/user-guide.txt b/Documentation/cpu-freq/user-guide.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 391da64e9492..000000000000 --- a/Documentation/cpu-freq/user-guide.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,228 +0,0 @@ - CPU frequency and voltage scaling code in the Linux(TM) kernel - - - L i n u x C P U F r e q - - U S E R G U I D E - - - Dominik Brodowski - - - - Clock scaling allows you to change the clock speed of the CPUs on the - fly. This is a nice method to save battery power, because the lower - the clock speed, the less power the CPU consumes. - - -Contents: ---------- -1. Supported Architectures and Processors -1.1 ARM and ARM64 -1.2 x86 -1.3 sparc64 -1.4 ppc -1.5 SuperH -1.6 Blackfin - -2. "Policy" / "Governor"? -2.1 Policy -2.2 Governor - -3. How to change the CPU cpufreq policy and/or speed -3.1 Preferred interface: sysfs - - - -1. Supported Architectures and Processors -========================================= - -1.1 ARM and ARM64 ------------------ - -Almost all ARM and ARM64 platforms support CPU frequency scaling. - -1.2 x86 -------- - -The following processors for the x86 architecture are supported by cpufreq: - -AMD Elan - SC400, SC410 -AMD mobile K6-2+ -AMD mobile K6-3+ -AMD mobile Duron -AMD mobile Athlon -AMD Opteron -AMD Athlon 64 -Cyrix Media GXm -Intel mobile PIII and Intel mobile PIII-M on certain chipsets -Intel Pentium 4, Intel Xeon -Intel Pentium M (Centrino) -National Semiconductors Geode GX -Transmeta Crusoe -Transmeta Efficeon -VIA Cyrix 3 / C3 -various processors on some ACPI 2.0-compatible systems [*] -And many more - -[*] Only if "ACPI Processor Performance States" are available -to the ACPI<->BIOS interface. - - -1.3 sparc64 ------------ - -The following processors for the sparc64 architecture are supported by -cpufreq: - -UltraSPARC-III - - -1.4 ppc -------- - -Several "PowerBook" and "iBook2" notebooks are supported. -The following POWER processors are supported in powernv mode: -POWER8 -POWER9 - -1.5 SuperH ----------- - -All SuperH processors supporting rate rounding through the clock -framework are supported by cpufreq. - -1.6 Blackfin ------------- - -The following Blackfin processors are supported by cpufreq: - -BF522, BF523, BF524, BF525, BF526, BF527, Rev 0.1 or higher -BF531, BF532, BF533, Rev 0.3 or higher -BF534, BF536, BF537, Rev 0.2 or higher -BF561, Rev 0.3 or higher -BF542, BF544, BF547, BF548, BF549, Rev 0.1 or higher - - -2. "Policy" / "Governor" ? -========================== - -Some CPU frequency scaling-capable processor switch between various -frequencies and operating voltages "on the fly" without any kernel or -user involvement. This guarantees very fast switching to a frequency -which is high enough to serve the user's needs, but low enough to save -power. - - -2.1 Policy ----------- - -On these systems, all you can do is select the lower and upper -frequency limit as well as whether you want more aggressive -power-saving or more instantly available processing power. - - -2.2 Governor ------------- - -On all other cpufreq implementations, these boundaries still need to -be set. Then, a "governor" must be selected. Such a "governor" decides -what speed the processor shall run within the boundaries. One such -"governor" is the "userspace" governor. This one allows the user - or -a yet-to-implement userspace program - to decide what specific speed -the processor shall run at. - - -3. How to change the CPU cpufreq policy and/or speed -==================================================== - -3.1 Preferred Interface: sysfs ------------------------------- - -The preferred interface is located in the sysfs filesystem. If you -mounted it at /sys, the cpufreq interface is located in a subdirectory -"cpufreq" within the cpu-device directory -(e.g. /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/ for the first CPU). - -affected_cpus : List of Online CPUs that require software - coordination of frequency. - -cpuinfo_cur_freq : Current frequency of the CPU as obtained from - the hardware, in KHz. This is the frequency - the CPU actually runs at. - -cpuinfo_min_freq : this file shows the minimum operating - frequency the processor can run at(in kHz) - -cpuinfo_max_freq : this file shows the maximum operating - frequency the processor can run at(in kHz) - -cpuinfo_transition_latency The time it takes on this CPU to - switch between two frequencies in nano - seconds. If unknown or known to be - that high that the driver does not - work with the ondemand governor, -1 - (CPUFREQ_ETERNAL) will be returned. - Using this information can be useful - to choose an appropriate polling - frequency for a kernel governor or - userspace daemon. Make sure to not - switch the frequency too often - resulting in performance loss. - -related_cpus : List of Online + Offline CPUs that need software - coordination of frequency. - -scaling_available_frequencies : List of available frequencies, in KHz. - -scaling_available_governors : this file shows the CPUfreq governors - available in this kernel. You can see the - currently activated governor in - -scaling_cur_freq : Current frequency of the CPU as determined by - the governor and cpufreq core, in KHz. This is - the frequency the kernel thinks the CPU runs - at. - -scaling_driver : this file shows what cpufreq driver is - used to set the frequency on this CPU - -scaling_governor, and by "echoing" the name of another - governor you can change it. Please note - that some governors won't load - they only - work on some specific architectures or - processors. - -scaling_min_freq and -scaling_max_freq show the current "policy limits" (in - kHz). By echoing new values into these - files, you can change these limits. - NOTE: when setting a policy you need to - first set scaling_max_freq, then - scaling_min_freq. - -scaling_setspeed This can be read to get the currently programmed - value by the governor. This can be written to - change the current frequency for a group of - CPUs, represented by a policy. This is supported - currently only by the userspace governor. - -bios_limit : If the BIOS tells the OS to limit a CPU to - lower frequencies, the user can read out the - maximum available frequency from this file. - This typically can happen through (often not - intended) BIOS settings, restrictions - triggered through a service processor or other - BIOS/HW based implementations. - This does not cover thermal ACPI limitations - which can be detected through the generic - thermal driver. - -If you have selected the "userspace" governor which allows you to -set the CPU operating frequency to a specific value, you can read out -the current frequency in - -scaling_setspeed. By "echoing" a new frequency into this - you can change the speed of the CPU, - but only within the limits of - scaling_min_freq and scaling_max_freq.