Project info for Perfd

Share This Created 16 Dec 2002 at 09:44 UTC by synctext, last modified 16 Dec 2002 at 09:49 UTC by synctext.

Homepage: http://Perfd.org

Notes:

Perfd implements a prototype a new power management framework. After APM and ACPI, there is now the Linux Performance Daemon.

The traditional method to manage the power on PCs, laptops, PDAs, and phones is to simply turn-off unused hardware. The biggest problem in this case is to detect when hardware is idle. The efficiency of this approach is limited. For instance, a hard-disk may need a few seconds to become active and therefore delays applications. Transmeta LongRun and Intel SpeedStep try to predict the CPU demand and predict the optimal clock frequency for the next 10 milliseconds. This approach causes problems for unpredictably loads, such as DVD playback.

The Perfd framework improves power management by breaking the transparency and providing applications with the opportunity to indicate their demands and preserve battery power. For instance, within Perfd a DVD decoder that knows the resources it needs to decode the current video frame can indicate this to the Perfd processor driver. A Perfd driver complements a device driver, by maximizing performance and power efficiency. Each Perfd driver includes a performance model of the hardware it controls. Such a performance models provides it with the intelligence to reduce power consumption. This model can also be queried by applications that are interested, for instance, in the current mJ/MByte of a wireless link. By breaking the abstraction, intelligent applications can reduce their power consumption and are no longer starved to information on abtract on 'eth0'.

License: LGPL

This project has the following developers:

New Advogato Features

New HTML Parser: The long-awaited libxml2 based HTML parser code is live. It needs further work but already handles most markup better than the original parser.

Keep up with the latest Advogato features by reading the Advogato status blog.

If you're a C programmer with some spare time, take a look at the mod_virgule project page and help us with one of the tasks on the ToDo list!

X
Share this page