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Intel chipset not fully supported by ACPI?

Started by StefanZ, 2012.09.28, 19:27:05

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StefanZ

What should one do, if running on Intel ICH9 family chipset and gets this out of ACPI:

This system does not support CPU Performance Control via ACPI.

This system does not support CPU Throttling.

Thermal information:
 No Thermal information is available for this computer


Does it mean my system is so nonstandard?  :'(
St.

rwklein

Quote from: StefanZ on 2012.09.28, 19:27:05
What should one do, if running on Intel ICH9 family chipset and gets this out of ACPI:

This system does not support CPU Performance Control via ACPI.

This system does not support CPU Throttling.

Thermal information:
  No Thermal information is available for this computer


Does it mean my system is so nonstandard?  :'(
St.

The latest versions if ACPI the use the HLT instruction with the SMP kernel (its active automaticly) just like it was in _W4 kernel. The old throttle stuff is less efficient and the GUI will be removed. Since the HLT instruction is much more efficient
and works on just about any CPU.

Roderick Klein


StefanZ

Hello Roderick,

thank you for your reply.

The main idea behind my question was if there is anything specific what I can do - as a single end user - to make sure that my system is better support in the future versions of ACPI?
...or is it better to wait for newer versions of ACPI that will get progressively better?

(I decided to act because it seems a bit ridiculous why my (standard Intel) system should not be supported at any time by any  of (even  the old) versions of acpi. I'm getting worried a bit that my system might actually never be fully supported...).

Thanks.
St.

rwklein

Quote from: StefanZ on 2012.09.29, 15:45:06
Hello Roderick,

thank you for your reply.

The main idea behind my question was if there is anything specific what I can do - as a single end user - to make sure that my system is better support in the future versions of ACPI?
...or is it better to wait for newer versions of ACPI that will get progressively better?

(I decided to act because it seems a bit ridiculous why my (standard Intel) system should not be supported at any time by any  of (even  the old) versions of acpi. I'm getting worried a bit that my system might actually never be fully supported...).

Thanks.
St.

You conclude from the fact that the throttle support is not supported that your chipset is not fully supported basically.
Before eCS 2.1 we never shipped any type of CPU method to cool down the CPU.

People had noted that the old _W4 kernel would keep CPU's cool. The SMP kernel we use in eCS does did have that HLT support the _W4 kernel has! So powerman.exe demon was implemented. It turned out these two ways it tries todo throttle support depend on the BIOS implementation. A lot of CPU's did this not work.

Infact based on the measurements David (who works on ACPI). The two throttle ways powerman.exe supports
slow down your system as it has to get from a "speed" up to a full speed.

Over the years we looked at implementing a way to get HLT support on an SMP system. But it was not easy as the SMP kernel has different ways of doing stuff then _W4 kernel does. The HLT support does not have the negative performance effect the throttle support powerman.exe offers. On top of that the HLT support provides even better power savings then the technology that powerman.exe provides. So the GUI to setup powerman and powerman.exe itself will go away in eCS 2.2.

The HLT support is effective automaticly by installing recent ACPI versions.
You can see it under acpistat.exe

ACPI name [CPU0]
IPIGenCount = 27585      IPICount    = 84680
IPIHLT      = 0          IdleCount   = 213371     BusyCount   = 25384

This works on just about any system with an AMD/Intel CPU. The success rate is WAAAY higher then with the ways powerman.exe supports.

So from that perspective it seems your throttle support we already support your system optimal. As an added bonus if the system is not being used other CPU cores are switched of automatically by ACPI and switched on back within a blink of an eye! So when it comes to throttle support of the CPU we are in good shape!

Roderick Klein
Mensys

Blonde Guy

Some computers will still need throttle control. So I hope it remains in the toolkit, so we can implement throttling to keep those computers cool. HLT is great, but sometimes it isn't enough. In your example above, IPIHLT = 0. Doesn't that mean that HLT isn't working on that computer?
Expert Consulting for OS/2 and eComStation

rwklein

Quote from: Blonde Guy on 2012.09.29, 22:31:08
Some computers will still need throttle control. So I hope it remains in the toolkit, so we can implement throttling to keep those computers cool. HLT is great, but sometimes it isn't enough. In your example above, IPIHLT = 0. Doesn't that mean that HLT isn't working on that computer?

Thats from my T60. And just about any x86 cpu suports HLT instructions:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HLT

Roderick Klein
Mensys

Joop

Quote from: Blonde Guy on 2012.09.29, 22:31:08
Some computers will still need throttle control. So I hope it remains in the toolkit, so we can implement throttling to keep those computers cool. HLT is great, but sometimes it isn't enough. In your example above, IPIHLT = 0. Doesn't that mean that HLT isn't working on that computer?
Interesting, which one? HLT was already build in the processor in the days of the XT. So you say you have a system with a processor which doesn't support HLT? In other words is not X86 compatible?

Blonde Guy

Well, neither of you answered the question. If HLT is never executed, then it won't save a lot of power, nor will it cool the computer. Your dump of ACPISTAT shows that HLT was never executed. Is that correct? Or is the counter not actually hooked up?

At least on my X60, the HLT version of ACPI does run cooler, and that's good, but without throttle control, any CPU intensive task will heat the machine to the point where it shuts off. By the way, IPIHLT is always zero on my x60, even though I know it runs cooler with the HLT version of ACPI.
Expert Consulting for OS/2 and eComStation