[PATCH v9 6/7] Documentation:cpufreq:boost: Update BOOST documentation

Lukasz Majewski
2013-10-14T12:17:49Z

Since the support for software and hardware controlled boosting has been
added, the corresponding Documentation entry had been updated.

Signed-off-by: Lukasz Majewski <l.majewski@samsung.com>
Signed-off-by: Myungjoo Ham <myungjoo.ham@samsung.com>
Acked-by: Viresh Kumar <viresh.kumar@linaro.org>

---
Changes for v9:
- None

Changes for v8:
- None

Changes for v7:
- None

Changes for v6:
- None

Changes for v5:
- New patch

Documentation/cpu-freq/boost.txt | 26 +++++++++++++-------------
1 file changed, 13 insertions(+), 13 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/cpu-freq/boost.txt b/Documentation/cpu-freq/boost.txt
index 9b4edfc..dd62e13 100644
--- a/Documentation/cpu-freq/boost.txt
+++ b/Documentation/cpu-freq/boost.txt
@@ -17,8 +17,8 @@ Introduction
Some CPUs support a functionality to raise the operating frequency of
some cores in a multi-core package if certain conditions apply, mostly
if the whole chip is not fully utilized and below it's intended thermal
-budget. This is done without operating system control by a combination
-of hardware and firmware.
+budget. The decision about boost disable/enable is made either at hardware
+(e.g. x86) or software (e.g ARM).
On Intel CPUs this is called "Turbo Boost", AMD calls it "Turbo-Core",
in technical documentation "Core performance boost". In Linux we use
the term "boost" for convenience.
@@ -48,24 +48,24 @@ be desirable:
User controlled switch
----------------------

-To allow the user to toggle the boosting functionality, the acpi-cpufreq
-driver exports a sysfs knob to disable it. There is a file:
+To allow the user to toggle the boosting functionality, the cpufreq core
+driver exports a sysfs knob to enable or disable it. There is a file:
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/boost
which can either read "0" (boosting disabled) or "1" (boosting enabled).
-Reading the file is always supported, even if the processor does not
-support boosting. In this case the file will be read-only and always
-reads as "0". Explicitly changing the permissions and writing to that
-file anyway will return EINVAL.
+The file is exported only when cpufreq driver supports boosting.
+Explicitly changing the permissions and writing to that file anyway will
+return EINVAL.

On supported CPUs one can write either a "0" or a "1" into this file.
This will either disable the boost functionality on all cores in the
-whole system (0) or will allow the hardware to boost at will (1).
+whole system (0) or will allow the software or hardware to boost at will
+(1).

Writing a "1" does not explicitly boost the system, but just allows the
-CPU (and the firmware) to boost at their discretion. Some implementations
-take external factors like the chip's temperature into account, so
-boosting once does not necessarily mean that it will occur every time
-even using the exact same software setup.
+CPU to boost at their discretion. Some implementations take external
+factors like the chip's temperature into account, so boosting once does
+not necessarily mean that it will occur every time even using the exact
+same software setup.

AMD legacy cpb switch
--
1.7.10.4