Linux 5.6 Adds New CPU Cooling Mechanism With Generic Idle Cooling Driver

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Linux 5.6 Adds New CPU Cooling Mechanism With Generic Idle Cooling Driver

The new "cpuidle_cooling" thermal driver in Linux 5.6 is similar to Intel's PowerClamp driver and RAPL framework but is generic for working across CPUs/architectures as an idle cooling driver to cool down CPUs/SoCs by injecting idle cycles at run-time...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-5.6-Generic-CPU-Cool-Idle

[schmidtbag]

So basically, it's a software thermal throttling, without actually lowering clock speeds?

[user556]

So basically, it's a software thermal throttling, without actually lowering clock speeds?

Yep. For those that have flawed cooling/clocking designs as well as broken throttling.

[andrewlinux]

I have a Lenovo laptop with an A4-9210e APU. Performance and CPU frequency varies wildly (it never actually get hotter than 54 degrees Celsius). I recently installed the 5.6 kernel (and current firmware) in an attempt to use the "cpuidle_cooling" thermal driver and hopefully resolve this issue but I can't find any information to help me enable it. Can any one help? Any input would be much appreciated.

[andrewlinux]

Has anyone successfully used this driver (cpuidle_cooling / cpu-idle-cooling) on an x86/x86_64 system?