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This is a VCool for FreeBSD (and possibly Linux): FVCool version 1.00
CPU cooling software for AMD's Athlon/Duron
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[0. What is this software?]
As is well known AMD's Athlon/Duron is a "hot" CPU. It really produces
a lot of heat. This is mainly because it consumes a lot of electric
power. However, there is an another reason: Generally CPU goes into
power-save mode when it is in the idle state, but in almost all the
mother boards this is prohibited in the case of Athlon/Duron mother
boards in their original BIOS settings. This software changes the PCI
configuration data of the chipset (north bridge), and allow Athlon/Duron
to go into power-save mode. The principle is very simple if you have
information. Actually, you can do exactly the same thing as this software
manually by using the "pciconf" command in FreeBSD.
Why mother board vendors release their products with such BIOS settings?
Well, there is a reason: There is a possibility to get the system unstable
and/or even to hang or crash the system. Therefore, this software is
somewhat dangerous in this respect, and I will not take any
responsibilities for problems caused by using this software. Please
check the original Martin Peters's VCool web site for learning more of
technical details:
http://vcool.occludo.net/
Or information for other chipsets rather than KT133, see the Hidemi Oya's
CoolON web site:
http://homepage2.nifty.com/coolon/ (Japanese only)
Actually, the information is contained the INI file (COOLONS.INI) of
the CoolON software for Microsoft Windows, it is used in this software.
The information is summarized in the top part of the code, "fvcool.c"
[1. Supported chipsets]
Supported chipsets now are the same as that of the CoolON above:
AMD 751/761/762
Sis 730, 735[*Note]
VIA KT266/A/333
VIA KT133/A/KX133 [see Usage below]
((Note)) In Sis735 mother board (ECS K7S5A), I have experienced that
the access of hard disk drive sometimes gets extremely slow. I do not
know why. Maybe something missing. So I do not recommend to use it
on Sis 735 mother boards. It is even not checked on Sis 730 mother
boards.
[2. Usage]
First, as is usual, just by using make, you compile and make "fvcool"
command.
The usage of this program is very simple: After getting root privilege,
just execute it like this,
# fvcool
if it does not complain like,
# Supported Athlon/Duron chipset (north bridge) not found: XXXXXX
then try to check the CPU temperature. It will go down quickly by 10
to 20 degrees Celsius depending on mother boards. If not or it complains
the message above, sorry this software does not work. Just forget it.
((Note)) In the present state of FreeBSD OS, the "hlt" command is not
ordered when idling in the dual CPU (SMP) machine, so it is not
effective on dual CPU (SMP) machines.
If you want to know what it does, add an option -v(verbose),
# fvcool -v
Then there will be an output like this:
# VIA KT266/A/KT333 found.
# Change Reg0x92 0x69 --> 0xE9
# Change Reg0x95 0x1C --> 0x1E
If this makes the system unstable or something wrong happens, then
you can make it back to the original status, where power-save mode is
prohibited, supply an option -d (disable),
# fvcool -v -d
# VIA KT266/A/KT333 found.
# Change Reg0x92 0xE9 --> 0x69
# Change Reg0x95 0x1E --> 0x1C
If you have KT133/KX133 mother boards (i.e. north bridge is KT133/KX133),
it is not enough. First try,
# fvcool -v -i
then it goes into idle-loop and will not go back to the command line.
Checking the CPU temperature and find it going down, then you have to use
one window (or one process) in this way. To stop the program, press
CTRL-C (^C). Or if you keep CPU cooling without using this program's
idle-loop, then you have to change the kernel code, see 00READMEkt133.txt
for details.
[3. Acknowledgments and Disclaimer]
* This simple software is based on the code of the Linux version of
the original VCool, LVCool, as already mentioned. I thank Martin Peters
very much for opening the information of the principle of Athlon/Duron
cooling, and the actual software which can be used in the Linux platform.
* Information for let Athlon/Duron go into power-save mode in the case
of other chipsets is obtained by the Hidemi Oya's CoolON, which is
for the Microsoft Windows Platform.
This software is completely free software for non-commercial use.
Any modifications and changes to the programs are welcome, and they are
freely copied and distributed for non-commercial use. The author is not
at all responsible if anyone have any problems or damages when using
the programs. The author won't keep the development of the programs
any further, at least now. But if someone develops any new better
programs based on my own, I am very glad if feedback is made to me
(of course, it is not at all any duties!).
August 15, 2002 Yoshifumi R. Shimizu,
Department of Fundamental Physics,
Kyushu University
e-mail : yrsh2scp@mbox.nc.kyushu-u.ac.jp
http://www.nt.phys.kyushu-u.ac.jp/shimizu/index.html