I guess it depends on the system
Sort-of. We have something similar with threads on ppc. IE, the core can
only really stop if all threads are. From a Linux persepctive it's a
matter of how we define the scope of that 'cluster' Catalin is talking
about. I'm sure you do too.
Then there is the package, which adds MC etc...
the very first cpu needs to power on
* the core itself
* the "cluster" that you mention
* the memory controller
* the memory (out of self refresh)
while the second cpu needs
* the core itself
* maybe a second cluster
normally on Intel systems, the memory power delta is quite significant
which then means the efficiency of the second core is huge compared to
running things in sequence.
What's your typical latency for bringing an MC back (and memory out of
self refresh) ? IE. Basically bringing a package back up ?