Power usage on FreeBSD

[Kostik Belousov]

On Sat, Oct 08, 2011 at 01:44:37AM +0200, Harald Servat wrote:
> Dear hackers,
> 
>   does anyone know if I can measure power consumption of the processor via
> software by using FreeBSD on a Intel Core i5? Any pointer on this, or other
> architectures, will be welcome.
> 
> Thank you very much in advance!

Measuring the power consumption by CPU would probably require you to
get some NDA documentation from Intel. On the Core-class CPUs there are
definitely the facilities related to the Turbo Mode, that show inner
working of the power management microcontroller. See the Linux IPS
driver, which controls both CPU and Northbridge/GPU. I was unable to
find a public documentation about it. Some information is present in the
CPU/PCH datasheets.

On the other hand, if you are only concerned about whole system power
consumption, use a laptop or a managed UPS.
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