Commit 0636f0c3 authored by Lukasz Majewski's avatar Lukasz Majewski Committed by Rafael J. Wysocki

Documentation: cpufreq / boost: Update BOOST documentation

Since the support for software and hardware controlled boosting has
been added, update the corresponding documentation.
Signed-off-by: default avatarLukasz Majewski <l.majewski@samsung.com>
Signed-off-by: default avatarMyungjoo Ham <myungjoo.ham@samsung.com>
Acked-by: default avatarViresh Kumar <viresh.kumar@linaro.org>
Signed-off-by: default avatarRafael J. Wysocki <rafael.j.wysocki@intel.com>
parent c683c2c9
......@@ -17,8 +17,8 @@ Introduction
Some CPUs support a functionality to raise the operating frequency of
some cores in a multi-core package if certain conditions apply, mostly
if the whole chip is not fully utilized and below it's intended thermal
budget. This is done without operating system control by a combination
of hardware and firmware.
budget. The decision about boost disable/enable is made either at hardware
(e.g. x86) or software (e.g ARM).
On Intel CPUs this is called "Turbo Boost", AMD calls it "Turbo-Core",
in technical documentation "Core performance boost". In Linux we use
the term "boost" for convenience.
......@@ -48,24 +48,24 @@ be desirable:
User controlled switch
----------------------
To allow the user to toggle the boosting functionality, the acpi-cpufreq
driver exports a sysfs knob to disable it. There is a file:
To allow the user to toggle the boosting functionality, the cpufreq core
driver exports a sysfs knob to enable or disable it. There is a file:
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/boost
which can either read "0" (boosting disabled) or "1" (boosting enabled).
Reading the file is always supported, even if the processor does not
support boosting. In this case the file will be read-only and always
reads as "0". Explicitly changing the permissions and writing to that
file anyway will return EINVAL.
The file is exported only when cpufreq driver supports boosting.
Explicitly changing the permissions and writing to that file anyway will
return EINVAL.
On supported CPUs one can write either a "0" or a "1" into this file.
This will either disable the boost functionality on all cores in the
whole system (0) or will allow the hardware to boost at will (1).
whole system (0) or will allow the software or hardware to boost at will
(1).
Writing a "1" does not explicitly boost the system, but just allows the
CPU (and the firmware) to boost at their discretion. Some implementations
take external factors like the chip's temperature into account, so
boosting once does not necessarily mean that it will occur every time
even using the exact same software setup.
CPU to boost at their discretion. Some implementations take external
factors like the chip's temperature into account, so boosting once does
not necessarily mean that it will occur every time even using the exact
same software setup.
AMD legacy cpb switch
......
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