• Welcome to OS2World OLD-STATIC-BACKUP Forum.
 

News:

This is an old OS2World backup forum for reference only. IT IS READ ONLY!!!

If you need help with OS/2 - eComStation visit http://www.os2world.com/forum

Main Menu

ACPI version 3.20.03 released

Started by Andi710, 2012.06.24, 10:08:08

Previous topic - Next topic

DougB

QuoteRoderick: Should I open a ticket requesting support for my board's temperature sensors through ACPI?

I am not Roderick, but... Did you try changing the widget motherboard setting from "ACPI standard" to "Asus P5B"? That works for my Asus M3A78-EM motherboard.

If that doesn't work, then open a ticket, but I am not sure if you should open it against ACPI, or the widget.

DougB

QuoteThe T43 2xxx is supported by APM, and that's what makes those machines special

I don't know about "special". It does seem that the T43 2xxx series does support ACPI. Possibly APM too (I don't know for sure). You can use the ACPI utilities SETGETSTATE and SETGETTHRTL to determine if the machine supports those functions (you do need ACPI loaded to do the tests). If it does, you can use them to reduce power consumption, which also reduces heat output, and extends battery life.

My old Coolman prototype used both of those, when they would work, but REXX and external programs, are really too limited to be really effective. I found that SETGETSTATE did more to reduce power consumption than SETGETTHRTL does. The new ACPI power management appears to use throttling, but not the STATE settings. I am not sure exactly what throttling does, but the STATE settings reduce the machine clock speed, which lets the hardware work with less power consumption, but it is slower. The new ACPI has added a new twist, that I never thought of (probably because I was working with a single core machine), and that is to turn off all but one core of a SMP machine. Now, they have also added the use of the HLT command, to further reduce power consumption. Of course, with all of these methods, there needs to be a way to speed it up when the power is needed, and slow it again when the demand is not there. ACPI, using throttling, core reduction, and HLT, seems to work great on SMP machines, but it is far less effective on single core machines. You can effectively measure the effectiveness of these techniques by monitoring the system temperature. For example, my Asus M3A78-EM, with quad core Phenom processor, runs at about 59C (138F), with no power control. With throttling, it runs at about 55C (131F). When it uses throttling, and core reduction, it runs at about 42C (107F). Add HLT , and it runs at about 38C (100F). While the machine claims to have two STATE settings, SETGETSTATE cannot change them, for some reason (although, I haven't tried that with the new ACPI).

My IBM ThinkPad T43 (1871-W8M - single core), runs at about 72C (161F) with no power control. With throttling only, it runs at about 62C (143F). Add HLT, and it runs at about 58C (136F). Of course, core reduction is not possible with a single core machine, so that is what ACPI can do for it. Now, if I use SETGETSTATE to set it to the slowest clock speed, it runs at about 42C (107F). The battery life is extended with each step too, and, of course, the T43 doesn't cook your legs, if you use it on your lap, until you run a program that speeds it up for more than a few seconds.   :)

My Lenovo ThinkPad T510 (dual core, running with hyperthreading enabled - contrary to suggestions in the ACPI package), runs at about 62C (144F) with no power control. Throttling knocks it down to about 52C (125F), core reduction goes to about 48C (118F), and HLT goes to about 43C (109F). SETGETSTATE does not work. Note that I use hyperthreading because it makes Win7 work MUCH better. It doesn't seem to do much (good, or bad) for eCS, so I just leave it enabled.

Of course, suspend/resume is not usable with any of them. On the other hand, I have an antique IBM ThinkPad A22e that has full APM support, and it does suspend/resume, and hybernation (full power off, with very quick recovery), with no problem (the BIOS actually does it, with a little support from the OS). It does not do power reduction though. It has no support for ACPI, and it will cook your legs if you use it on your lap.

Blonde Guy

Well, the T43 2xxx is like your T22, with full support for everything. IBM certified it. Sure ACPI probably also works, but not everything works as well. For example, with SpeedStep, the T43 2xxx runs about 40 C.

We need ACPI to run newer machines, and for some older machines. I'm just saying that there are a lot of T43 2xxx machines out there because they were the last machine IBM certified for OS/2.
Expert Consulting for OS/2 and eComStation

eirik

I fully agree with Blonde Guy that the emphasis should be ongetting ACPI support to newer models -- after all that is where the market is going to be.

My old T43 ran excellent without ACPI - suspend/resume worked wonders, wired and WiFi access, in brief the works.

On my 2 years old T410 I run ACPI ver. 3.20.03.  Boot time is so fast that the lack of suspend/resume does not feel like a big problem.  Fixing this issue may however also be useful in terms of getting the FnFx buttons to work as they should.  My reactor temperature is 62 degrees when I run on the net, and between 52 and 58 degrees when I run on battery (I've activated throttling).  On the hot side, but no real danger.  Throttling also extends battery time substantially, so it beats my Win7 (64).

Otherwise, the system runs wonderfully -- wired access is excellent with the E1000E driver from the MultiMac project.  The most pressing  issues as I see it are: WiFi (I tried with the help of others to get the Intel 4995 under GenMac mimic the Intel 6300 a/g/n/ but no success), the FnFX buttons (so I can use my eCS partition for presentations), and Java integration into FireFox (or any other useful browser).

diver

@Eirik the Java part is being worked on. Should not really take very long till GA3 is out.

melf

Found 3.20.04 available. Now both suspend and resume works again on my T43!
/Mikael