# CPU Frequency Scaling Monitor Manual

CPU Frequency Scaling Monitor shows the current clock speed of the CPU and provides an interface to change the clock speed if the CPU supports it.

2005
Davyd Madeley
2004
GNOME Foundation
2007
David Lodge (dave@cirt.net)
GNOME Documentation Project

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Carlos
Garcia Campos
GNOME Project

    carlosgc@gnome.org

Davyd
Madeley
GNOME Project

    davyd@madeley.id.au

GNOME 2.12
August 2005

Davyd Madeley

GNOME 2.10
March 2005

Davyd Madeley

CPU Frequency Scaling Monitor Applet Manual V0.3
October 2004

Carlos Garcia Campos

GNOME Documentation Project

This manual describes version 2.12.0 of CPU Frequency Scaling Monitor.

## Feedback

To report a bug or make a suggestion regarding the CPU Frequency Scaling Monitor applet or this manual, follow the directions in the GNOME Feedback Page.

## Introduction

### CPU Frequency Scaling Monitor

The CPU Frequency Scaling Monitor provides a convenient way to monitor the CPU Frequency Scaling for each CPU.

To add CPU Frequency Scaling Monitor to a panel, right-click on the panel to open the panel popup menu, then choose Add to Panel CPU Frequency Scaling Monitor.

Unfortunately, CPU frequency scaling can currently only be monitored on Linux machines that have support in the kernel. It can however, support the several generations of frequency scaling interfaces in the kernel.

When there is no CPU frequency scaling support in the system, the CPU Frequency Scaling Monitor only displays the current CPU frequency.

When CPU frequency scaling is supported in the system, the CPU Frequency Scaling Monitor displays the CPU icon with a progress bar. The state of the progress bar represents the current CPU frequency with respect to the maximum frequency.

By default the CPU Frequency Scaling Monitor displays the current CPU frequency as a value in Hertz (the standard measure of frequency), but can be configured to display a percentage instead. For more information on how to configure CPU Frequency Scaling Monitor see .

Each instance of CPU Frequency Scaling Monitor can monitor only one CPU. You must start an instance of CPU Frequency Scaling Monitor for each CPU that you want to monitor if you are in a multiprocessor (SMP) system.

### Understanding the Icons

The CPU Frequency Scaling Monitor has a series of icons that graphically represent the current scaling level of the processor you are monitoring. They are:

Icon | Description
--- | ---
100% Power | The CPU is running at, or close to, 100% throughput
75% Power | The CPU is running at, or close to, 75% throughput
50% Power | The CPU is running at, or close to, 50% throughput
25% Power | The CPU is running at, or close to, 25% throughput

### Frequency and Governor Selector

The Frequency Selector functionality may not be available on your GNOME Desktop by default. Please consult your system administrator, vendor documentation or the documentation that came with this software.

To set the CPU frequency, left click on the monitor and a menu will be shown. This menu will offer you a list of available frequencies and/or frequency governors for your machine.

You can choose whether you want to show available frequencies or governors in the Preferences. See for more information.

#### Frequency selector showing just frequencies

#### Frequency selector showing both frequencies and governors

## Preferences

To configure the CPU Frequency Scaling Monitor, right-click on the applet, then choose Preferences from the popup menu.

The Preferences dialogue contains the following components:

### CPU Frequency Scaling Monitor Preferences Dialogue

CPU Frequency Scaling Monitor preferences dialogue

Monitored CPU (only in multiprocessor systems)

  Use this drop-down list to select the CPU that you want to monitor.

  ### Selecting the CPU to monitor

  CPU Frequency Scaling Monitor preferences dialog CPU selector

  The Monitored CPU option will only appear on multiprocessor (SMP) systems.

Show in Mode

  Use this drop-down list to select the mode in which you want to display the applet. Available modes are: Graphic, Text and both (Graphic and Text)

Show CPU frequency as frequency

  Select this option to display the current CPU frequency.

Show frequency units

  Select this option to display or not the frequency units in the frequency mode.

Show CPU frequency as percentage

  Select this option to display the current CPU frequency as a percentage.

Show menu

  This option allows you to choose how much information is shown in the frequency selector dropdown (see ). You can select to display Frequencies, Governors or both Frequencies and Governors.

  ### The selector configured to Frequencies and Governors

  CPU governors selector