CPU frequency scaling "hinting" [SOLVED]

number_nine · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 05 May 2005 Posts: 136

I want to use the power-saving features of modern CPUs (cpufreq, powernow, etc). However, I'd like to have certain applications be able to "hint" to the kernel to not change power states.

In particular, I want to use the ondemand or conservative governor, but have the CPU stay in "powersave" mode (lowest power/frequency state) when running applications like seti@home or folding@home. Only when other applications run should the CPU jump into a higher performance level.

Is there some kind of wrapper or something I can use around an application to "hide" its CPU usage from the kernel/CPU governor?

Thanks.

Sadako · Posted: Sat Aug 18, 2007 1:44 am Post subject:

I think powernowd has an option to not count "niced" processes,
so if you started seti or whatever with `nice -n 10` it shouldn't increase the frequency for it.
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albright · Posted: Sat Aug 18, 2007 2:49 pm Post subject:

If you are using cpufreqd then look in the file /etc/cpufreqd.conf
You can assign power profiles to individual applications. For
example, here's a rule for burnP6:

number_nine · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 05 May 2005 Posts: 136

Thank you, this is exactly what I was looking for!

Thanks again.