SpeedStep is a technology from Intel to throttle the CPU's clock speed when it is not fully utilized in order to save power. This is especially useful for mobile devices and servers. On a PureDarwin system, you can use the VoodooPower kernel extension in order to use SpeedStep. On Intel Atom systems, PureDarwin 9 is known to work well with the VoodooPowerMini.kext (Leopard version) that. (On PureDarwin 10, you'll use the Snow Leopard version instead.) You can download it from http://www.superhai.com/darwin.html After downloading VoodooPowerMini.kext, you can install it on your PureDarwin 9 system: sudo chown root:wheel 755 VoodooPowerMini.kext sudo chmod -R 755 VoodooPowerMini.kext mv VoodooPowerMini.kext /System/Library/Extensions/ kextload /System/Library/Extensions/VoodooPowerMini.kext # Rebuild kext cache with kextload Now, you can verify that it is working: toor@PureDarwin:~% sysctl -a | grep cpufrequency hw.cpufrequency = 800015400 hw.cpufrequency_max: 1600030800 hw.cpufrequency_min: 800015400 If hw.cpufrequency is lower than hw.cpufrequency_max in low-CPU usage situations, then SpeedStep is working correctly. |
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 The goal of this project is to make Darwin more usable by providing an installation ISO, documentation, and add-on software. You are welcome to join #puredarwin on irc.freenode.net if you would like to join PureDarwin development and to add to this site. |
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