Listed pstates: [ 2.591543] powernow-k8: Found 1 AMD A8-3500M APU with Radeon(tm) HD Graphics (4 cpu cores) (version 2.20.00) [ 2.591570] powernow-k8: Core Performance Boosting: on. [ 2.591626] powernow-k8: 0 : pstate 0 (1500 MHz) [ 2.591629] powernow-k8: 1 : pstate 1 (1400 MHz) [ 2.591631] powernow-k8: 2 : pstate 2 (1200 MHz) [ 2.591634] powernow-k8: 3 : pstate 3 (1100 MHz) [ 2.591636] powernow-k8: 4 : pstate 4 (1000 MHz) [ 2.591639] powernow-k8: 5 : pstate 5 (900 MHz) [ 2.591641] powernow-k8: 6 : pstate 6 (800 MHz) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_AMD_A_microprocessors#A8_Series_2 1.5 GHz is a base frequency, but maximum frequency (Turbo Core) should be 2.4 GHz, not 1.5 GHz. Today tested with 3.3.0rc1 - same problem here. Distribution is Kubuntu 11.10 x86_64, laptop is Acer Aspire 7560G.
powernow-k8 correctly shows all software visible Pstates on your system. All that the frequency driver can do is to select one of the software visible Pstates. For highest performance software can request to switch to Pstate number 0 (1.5GHz in your case). In addition the CPU itself can boost the frequency of a core up to 2.4 GHz in your case if cpb (core performance boost) is enabled. There are "boosted P-states" to do this, but those are not visible/accessible to the powernow-k8 driver. You can check whether CPB is enable with $ for i in `find /sys/ -name cpb`; do echo -n "$i: "; cat $i; done /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/cpb: 1 /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu1/cpufreq/cpb: 1 /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu2/cpufreq/cpb: 1 /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu3/cpufreq/cpb: 1 You can display the actual (boosted) frequency with tools like cpufreq-aperf (part of cpufrequtils), e.g. # cpufreq-aperf CPU Average freq(KHz) Time in C0 Time in Cx C0 percentage 000 1088000 00 sec 120 ms 00 sec 879 ms 12 001 0768000 00 sec 061 ms 00 sec 938 ms 06 002 0768000 00 sec 062 ms 00 sec 937 ms 06 003 0800000 00 sec 045 ms 00 sec 954 ms 04 004 1184000 00 sec 109 ms 00 sec 890 ms 10 005 3552000 01 sec 003 ms 5764607523 sec 031 ms 100 This example is from a system with Phenom X6 1090T processor. There was load on the 6th core, which was boosted to 3.5 GHz. The software visible Pstates of that system are powernow-k8: Found 1 AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1090T Processor (6 cpu cores)(version 2.20.00) powernow-k8: Core Performance Boosting: on. powernow-k8: 0 : pstate 0 (3200 MHz) powernow-k8: 1 : pstate 1 (2400 MHz) powernow-k8: 2 : pstate 2 (1600 MHz) powernow-k8: 3 : pstate 3 (800 MHz) More details about CPB can be found in the respective BKDG for your CPU, see section "2.5.3.1.1 Core Performance Boost (CPB)" in http://support.amd.com/us/Processor_TechDocs/41131.pdf HTH, Andreas
Forgot to mention that x86info is able to show full Pstate information (including the boosted Pstates). Example: # ./x86info -a x86info v1.30 Dave Jones 2001-2011 Feedback to <davej@redhat.com>. ... Found 6 identical CPUs Extended Family: 1 Extended Model: 0 Family: 15 Model: 10 Stepping: 0 CPU Model (x86info's best guess): Phenom/Athlon/Sempron/Turion (II)/Opteron (PH-E0) Processor name string (BIOS programmed): AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1090T Processor ... PowerNOW! Technology information Available features: Temperature sensing diode present. Thermal Trip Thermal Monitoring Software Thermal Control 100MHz multiplier control Hardware P-state control invariant TSC Core Performance Boost Effective Frequency Interface Boosting enabled Number of boost states: 1 Pstate-Pb0: 3600MHz (boost state) Pstate-P0: 3200MHz (current) Pstate-P1: 2400MHz Pstate-P2: 1600MHz Pstate-P3: 800MHz ...
Thank you for very informative commentaries, but in case of AMD A8-3500M APU frequencies higher than 1.5 GHz are not available even with enabled cpb (/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpuN/cpufreq/cpb is 1) but even under heavy load (test case: 60 fps FullHD video playback, multithreading decoder) cpufreq-aperf report not more than 1.5 GHz: 000 1485000 00 sec 976 ms 00 sec 023 ms 97 001 1485000 00 sec 984 ms 00 sec 015 ms 98 002 1485000 00 sec 987 ms 00 sec 012 ms 98 003 1485000 00 sec 971 ms 00 sec 028 ms 97 At this moment I already back to 3.2.2 kernel. I need to check 3.3rc2?
All 4 cores are almost fully utilized (>=97% in C0) and operating at highest frequency. Also the GPU part of your APU is loaded. Obviously in your scenario the APU (CPU+GPU) is operating at its design limits (power, thermal) and there is no room to switch any of your cores into a boosted P-state. AMD's Turbo Core (similar to Intel's Turbo Boost) can increase frequency of cores if the entire processor is operating below its power and thermal limits. For example a Phenom X6 1090T Processor is able to boost 3 cores if the other 3 cores are idle. On your processor the decision whether cores can boost depends on current CPU and GPU workload and the corresponding power consumption. I think it's best to quote from the BKDG: "CPB hardware dynamically monitors processor activity and generates an approximation of power consumption. If power consumption exceeds a defined power limit, a P-state limit is applied by CPB hardware to reduce power consumption. CPB ensures that average power consumption over a thermally significant time period remains at or below the defined power limit. This allows P-states to be defined with higher frequencies and voltages than could be used without CPB. These P-states are referred to as boosted P-states."
After switch GPU in APU to low power profile (that probably reduce power consumption and temperature of APU) at least one core under load increase frequency up to 1.8 GHz. Thank you for a full and detailed explanation. I'm sorry I take your time, but wikipedia article about AMD Turbo Core is available only in Deutsch. On AMD official web-site (in the consumer part) there is just short description "AMD Turbo Core Technology - Automatically scales performance on-demand to provide extra performance when you need it most. Amazing performance when you're pushing your system to the limits, with scaled back power consumption for everyday activities." that in my opinion doesn't explain real cpb behavior.
I guess this AMD A8-3500M is a family 12h CPU (/proc/cpuinfo, cpu family -> 18)? If yes (or if it's fam14h, cpu family -> 20), can you give latest cpupower monitor tool a try from here: git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/brodo/cpupowerutils.git cd tools/power/cpupower make # make sure pciutils-devel or whatever provides pci.h is installed ./cpupower monitor Do you get a fam12h or fam14h monitor column? If yes, you should be able to obtain additional info from HW which deep sleep states were really entered, which core boosts, etc. There is one special column: nbp1 (North Bridge P-state 1). This one is only entered if graphics also enters power states. It's a yes/no flag which always gets reset at measure beginning. If you install cpupower, cpupower monitor --help should give you some more details, otherwise man -l man/*.1 shows you some additional info. When I tried, I realized that the kernel radeon driver prevented the platform to enter NBP1 state (even with powersave profile). fglrx worked and NBP1 was entered immediately. -> I add the cpufreq list again. This one sounds interesting for others and having this in the cpufreq archives for googling shouldn't be that bad.
cpupower monitor could need a -t (top) param, but you can use: watch -n1 cpupower monitor to constantly track sleep states, frequency, boost, etc. behavior.