SlowACPI

[Laaca]

Hi!
With some surprise I realisez that I have on my harddisk your utility SlowACPI - binary and the source code. Unfortunately it does not work on my computer (it simply does not fond the ACPI interface). However the listed features are interresting and the souce code seems to be quite understandable even for me.
The version I have is versioned as 0.01 beta and is from 10/sep/2011.
Do you have some newer build? Have you fixed the ACPI detection routine?

[Laaca]

Hm, I tried it on another (older) computer and it partialy works. It has ACPI in version 1 (the previous one /the nonworking one/ has version 2)
Anyway, even in this ACPI 1.0 machine does not work the command "SLOWACPI 0"

[Bret]

Laaca:

That surprises me, too. SlowACPI is still officially unreleased, but I must have sent you an early version for some reason. I've got a version 0.2-beta right now, but still don't have the ACPI detection code completely fixed (I have modified it some, but haven't worked on it lately). I'm not sure what's included with the version you have, but a couple of things SLOWACI has now that yours may not are that it has been converted from A86 to NASM, and I'm also experimenting with ODCM (On-Demand Clock Modulation) as a way to slow down the CPU instead of ACPI. ODCM is a method offered by Intel CPUs (AFAIK other CPU manufacturers don't offer it) that slows down the CPU similar to what ACPI does, but ODCM is accessed through the Model-Specific Registers (MSRs) in the CPU instead of the ACPI interface. I'm also trying to add support to monitor the battery status for laptops through the ACPI interface, but it's a mess to work with. I know it works with my old Sony laptop and my newer (but still really old) HP laptop, but don't know if it will work with any other laptops. ACPI is a HUGE PITA to work with.

SLOWACPI still has a long ways to go before I would consider it ready for an official release. I don't remember for sure if I've made any changes to affect the operation of the SLOWACPI 0 option, but I think I may have -- you can try the attached version and see.

It's also interesting that you can understand the code -- that make me feel good. That means all the time I spend commenting the code is worthwhile (believe me -- you would never be able to understand the code without the comments, and neither would I).