Merge master.kernel.org:/home/rmk/linux-2.6-arm

[mirror_ubuntu-artful-kernel.git] / Documentation / cpu-freq / user-guide.txt

     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  <linux@brodo.de>



   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
1.2 x86
1.3 sparc64
1.4 ppc
1.5 SuperH

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
3.2 Deprecated interfaces



1. Supported Architectures and Processors
=========================================

1.1 ARM
-------

The following ARM processors are supported by cpufreq:

ARM Integrator
ARM-SA1100
ARM-SA1110
Intel PXA


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 [*]

[*] 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.


1.5 SuperH
----------

The following SuperH processors are supported by cpufreq:

SH-3
SH-4


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).

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) 
scaling_driver :		this file shows what cpufreq driver is
				used to set the frequency on this CPU

scaling_available_governors :	this file shows the CPUfreq governors
				available in this kernel. You can see the
				currently activated governor in

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.

cpuinfo_cur_freq :		Current speed of the CPU, in KHz.

scaling_available_frequencies : List of available frequencies, in KHz.

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.

affected_cpus :			List of CPUs that require software coordination
				of frequency.

related_cpus :			List of CPUs that need some sort of frequency
				coordination, whether software or hardware.

scaling_driver :		Hardware driver for cpufreq.

scaling_cur_freq :		Current frequency of the CPU, in KHz.

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.
				

3.2 Deprecated Interfaces
-------------------------

Depending on your kernel configuration, you might find the following 
cpufreq-related files:
/proc/cpufreq
/proc/sys/cpu/*/speed
/proc/sys/cpu/*/speed-min
/proc/sys/cpu/*/speed-max

These are files for deprecated interfaces to cpufreq, which offer far
less functionality. Because of this, these interfaces aren't described
here.