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.