No powerNow/cpufreq for a desktop Athlon-XP ?

[Bruno Ducrot]

On Mon, Nov 14, 2005 at 10:37:19AM +0100, Bruno Ducrot wrote:
> On Mon, Nov 14, 2005 at 09:56:58AM +0100, Thierry Herbelot wrote:
> > Hello,
> > 
> > I'm using FreeBSD 6.0 on an Athlon-based desktop machine. I have loaded the 
> > acpi and cpufreq kernel modules, but powerd does not want to start :
> > 'powerd: lookup freq: No such file or directory'
> > 
> > From a little googling, it seems that cpufreq will not work on this machine as 
> > PowerNow is active only on mobile Athlons (see for example 
> > http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=357591)
> > 
> > Am I correct ? or is there any way to enable powernow on a desktop Athlon ?
> > 
> 
> Some people reported that it's possible to use powernow on athlon-based
> desktop (report under Linux).  I don't know the full detail though, but
> IIRC you have to buy a low-powered processor, and change the driver code
> in order to add the differents entry for the differents states
> available.  On the other hand, it is not possible to change the
> voltages associated (this require a special VRM part, available only
> on mobile systems).
> I'm sure this would not save power then (especially because all
> athlon-xp support a very good C2 power state), though this
> will likely allow you to cool the processor.
> 

Hrmm, I remember now that an Athlon-XP can be changed somewhat.

Maybe this page
<http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20041001/index.html>
could help.

-- 
Bruno Ducrot

--  Which is worse:  ignorance or apathy?
--  Don't know.  Don't care.