cvs commit: src/sys/i386/cpufreq est.c

[John Baldwin]

On Monday 17 March 2008 10:02:13 am Poul-Henning Kamp wrote:
> In message <200803170933.48212.jhb at freebsd.org>, John Baldwin writes:
> >On Monday 17 March 2008 05:01:43 am Poul-Henning Kamp wrote:
> >> phk         2008-03-17 09:01:43 UTC
> >>
> >>   FreeBSD src repository
> >>
> >>   Modified files:
> >>     sys/i386/cpufreq     est.c
> >>   Log:
> >>   Increase time we wait for things to settle to 1 millisecond,
> >>   10 microseconds is too short.
> >>
> >>   Always set the cpu to the highest frequency so that we get through
> >>   boot and don't handicap cpus where powerd(8) is not used.
> >
> >Hmm, I actually consider this a feature when I'm not running powerd to use 
> >less battery.  I think we should only bump up the CPU on battery power when 
> >using powerd so that it can be lowered again to save battery power when the 
> >CPU is idle.
> 
> We have cpufreq enabled by default now, badly configured machines run
> at 50% of rated CPU power because people don't know that they need to
> enable powerd(8) on servers.
> 
> This is only going to get worse when more EnergyStar compliant servers
> hit the channel.
> 
> I think setting full speed is the correct choice, if people care about
> powersaving, they need to configured it, if they don't they should get
> their moneys worth out of their hardware.

You have servers that default to half-speed when not on battery?  That is very 
odd, but you can just run powerd with '-a max' and it will just set them to 
run full speed on startup which will work fine for you.  I think the vast 
majority of machines that don't run at full speed on startup are machines on 
battery power and that the previous default was a more useful policy.

We don't have any servers at work that have this bizzare behavior (and we have 
a lot of machines at work).

-- 
John Baldwin