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  AMD64
Version 0.1
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  Submitted by: Wildman

Date Posted:
Aug-12-2019
Last Updated:
Aug-12-2019
License:
Free
Downloads:
2619
Page Views:
2023
User Rating:
awaiting votes..  

About AMD64:

What is it ?

This is a driver for AMD64's processors. This driver enables PowerNow! technology under BeOS.
PowerNow! is for AMD what Centrino is for Intel : it save power in Laptops by reducing
cpu's voltage and/or frequency.

Does it works ?

For me, YES !

For you, not sure (you should understand NOT YET) ! See the next two sections.

Why ?

1) this is my first real C project (and my first driver too). Fortunately, most of the code is taken from other
projects like ACPI CA, cpu_fix and powernow-k8 driver from Linux.

2) i use really ugly and hacky code to retrieve supported cpu states on my laptop. This code has never worked on other
people's machines. The right way should be to use a real ACPI parser like ACPI CA.

Known problems

This driver will only works "as is" on Aspire 1510 laptops (like mine). You can hack the source code to initialize
the driver with correct values for your machine at your own risk (see "ExtractCpuPowerState" function). You will
have to take a look at AMD's specifications to find CORRECT values for your processor. If not, the driver may dammage
your hardware.

When the driver is opened (and only there), vlc (for example) can produce ugly sound due to timing issues (or maybe interrupts issues ???).

This driver will not work on a multi-processors systems (and multi-core systems too). I have no access to such hardware and
i have not enough knowledge to support this.

If you know how to fix those remaining problems (or new ones...), feel free to hack the code and share it with the community.

Installation

- with sources :

start a Terminal in the directory where you extract the package
then

as -o obj.x86/assembly.o assembly.asm
make install

- with binaries :

put amd64 in /boot/home/config/add-ons/kernel/drivers/bin/

create a link to this file in /boot/home/config/add-ons/kernel/drivers/dev/misc

This step is not so necessary if you use the dynamic feature. This was mandatory with older version to put the cpu
in the configured state BEFORE cpu_fix was load to correct the timing issue. I use this feature for about 1 year to put
the cpu in slowest state at boot time to save power (My laptop default to the fastest one).

Configuration

The driver put the CPU in the lowest CPU state (cpustate 0). You can set the default cpustate
using an amd64 config file in /boot/home/config/settings/kernel/drivers. Take a look at amd64.sample !

New : The driver can dynamically change the cpustate to follow the workload. This happen when the driver is opened
(see amd64.py to see how to start dynamic cpu state change). Dynamic change is stopped when the driver is closed.
So, this parameter is only used as a default value when the driver is initialised or closed.

TODO

- extract CPU state datas from ACPI tables using ACPI CA
- porting this driver to Haiku
-
- ...


Latest Version

Details about this version:
(no information provided)

Intel (BeOS 5) + source     (32.2K)
  





   
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