From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon May 25 21:28:16 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2FEA9106566B for ; Mon, 25 May 2009 21:28:16 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from bruce@cran.org.uk) Received: from muon.cran.org.uk (brucec-1-pt.tunnel.tserv4.nyc4.ipv6.he.net [IPv6:2001:470:1f06:c09::2]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D495B8FC08 for ; Mon, 25 May 2009 21:28:15 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from bruce@cran.org.uk) Received: from muon.cran.org.uk (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by muon.cran.org.uk (Postfix) with ESMTP id 266B719019; Mon, 25 May 2009 21:28:14 +0000 (GMT) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.2.5 (2008-06-10) on muon X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.6 required=8.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_00,NO_RELAYS autolearn=ham version=3.2.5 Received: from gluon.draftnet (unknown [IPv6:2a01:348:10f:0:240:f4ff:fe57:9871]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA (128/128 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by muon.cran.org.uk (Postfix) with ESMTPSA; Mon, 25 May 2009 21:28:14 +0000 (GMT) Date: Mon, 25 May 2009 22:28:10 +0100 From: Bruce Cran To: Peter Boosten Message-ID: <20090525222810.57e96c4a@gluon.draftnet> In-Reply-To: <29229B06-6098-4488-9E9A-A5CFE6F9643B@boosten.org> References: <200905241315.n4ODFB96007801@mp.cs.niu.edu> <4A1A58FA.60303@boosten.org> <1932D812-03CF-48AF-A306-669C39862EB7@boosten.org> <29229B06-6098-4488-9E9A-A5CFE6F9643B@boosten.org> X-Mailer: Claws Mail 3.7.1 (GTK+ 2.16.1; i386-portbld-freebsd7.2) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailman-Approved-At: Mon, 25 May 2009 21:49:13 +0000 Cc: Wojciech Puchar , Scott Bennett , freebsd-questions@freebsd.org, utisoft@gmail.com, Yuri Subject: Re: How can this 'top' command output make sense? Load over 7 and total CPU use ~5% X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 25 May 2009 21:28:16 -0000 On Mon, 25 May 2009 21:42:40 +0200 Peter Boosten wrote: > > On 25 mei 2009, at 21:37, Wojciech Puchar wrote: > > >> The CPU = "Central Processing Unit" will perform it's > >> calculations at so many megahertz while at 10% utilization or at > >> 100% utilization. The entire machine > > > > no. it will not. all today x86 CPUs reacts on HLT command and > > doesn't do anything except waiting for interrupt (and saving lots > > of power). > > > > Do you actually read back what you write: you're saying here that > when a CPU has only 10% utilization, it'll run slower than when > performing at 100%... While it's not the default behaviour, if you run powerd(8) then yes, the CPU will run slower when it's less utilized. My laptop will run at between 150MHz and 2500MHz depending on the current workload. -- Bruce Cran