[ Thanks to An Anonymous Reader for
this link. ]
“The Linux CPUfreq subsystem
“Starting with the 2.6.0 Linux kernel, you can dynamically scale
processor frequencies through the CPUfreq subsystem. When
processors operate at a lower clock speed, they consume
proportionately less power and generate less heat. This dynamic
scaling of the clock speed gives some control in throttling the
system to consume less power when not operating at full
capacity.“The CPUfreq structure makes use of governors and daemons for
setting a static or dynamic power policy for the system. The
dynamic governors, which I discuss later in this article, can
switch between CPU frequencies based on CPU utilization to allow
for power savings while not sacrificing performance. These
governors also allow for some user tuning so you can customize and
easily change the frequency scaling. In addition, the
sched_mc_power_savings and sched_smt_power_savings settings make
use of consolidating threads to save power.”