PPro power consumption while executing "hlt"

Harald Koenig (koenig@tat.physik.uni-tuebingen.de)
Tue, 8 Apr 1997 14:47:40 +0200 (MEST)

does anyone know why the PPro doesn't use less power when running idle
and using "hlt" instruction then when running e.g. a idle loop in user
space using

main() { while (1) ; }

I just got a power meter and with 486 and 586 CPUs there is a significant
difference between idle Linux system and running any user process.

with a PPro this is max 1W difference; I have to do memory access etc.
to use +5-6W rel. to idle mode.

does anyone know details about the halt/idle stuff for P5/P6 CPUs ?

Harald

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