On Thu, 3 Jul 2008 11:54:33 -0700
"prodyut hazarika" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> Hi all,
> I would like to know whether Linux on PowerPC puts the processor on
> low power mode during idle state. Most PowerPC processors support a
> low power mode. I am looking to add support for low-power mode in
> Linux for AMCC 4xx processors.
> 
> My questions are the following:
> 1) Is tickless kernel integrated into the PowerPC tree?
> 2) Does Linux kernel puts the processor in low power mode if cpu is
> idle, and takes it out of that state on wakeup (triggered by
> interrupt/WOL etc)?
> 
> Any suggestions/comments would be welcome.

The 4xx cores themselves are designed to have power savings without
explicit software management.  The only sort of "NAP/DOZE" possible
from software on them is to use the Wait Enable state in the idle loop
to stall the CPU pipelines and wait for an exception.  This is already
done in more recent kernels, and it doesn't particularly save a lot of
power as the clocks and other logic are still all active.

Some chips may have an external clock and power management ASIC that
can be leverage but it will be SoC specific.  You could start there for
a particular board.

josh
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