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Technology Stocks : Advanced Micro Devices - Moderated (AMD)
AMD 250.10-3.7%Nov 4 3:59 PM EST
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To: fyodor_ who wrote (32224)3/19/2001 4:55:11 PM
From: TenchusatsuRead Replies (1) of 275872
 
Fyo, <I will say that I haven't actually seen PowerNow! work, so I don't know if it actually does the job it claims on paper.>

Have you read this article?

anandtech.com

This is AnandTech's well-written review of PowerNow and how well it balances performance and battery life for the mobile K6-2+.

1) The "Auto" mode dynamically varies the clock speed, just like PowerNow advertises. It increases the battery life from 127 to 154 minutes on BatteryMark for a negligible hit in performance compared to "Max Performance" mode.

2) The "Max Battery Life" mode basically keeps the processor underclocked (from 500 MHz to 200 MHz in this case) for an additional 20 minutes in battery life compared to "Auto." Performance takes a big hit, but I don't think anyone will notice it all that much while running their word processor or e-mail program. ;-)

<With PowerNow!, the processor will run at its rated speed if you are doing anything that requires the computing power - regardless of battery-state. If you're not doing anything, it will throttle down. To me, that seems more honest (as well as better).>

It may very well be a better solution, but more honest? I don't think so; in fact, the additional flexibility leaves a lot of room open for fudging the facts. At least you know what speed the mobile Pentium III runs at when running off the battery. There will be no way of knowing what speed a processor with PowerNow (or any similar technology) actually runs at in "Auto" mode.

Tenchusatsu
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