During a comment discussion on a recent post about configuring the setCPU app (Android Rooted: setCPU and Profiles), reader Ben Pike pointed me to an interesting post found in the DroidForums.net forums, where ‘Mike’, the author of the setCPU app describes some additional settings around CPU Governance in the setCPU application.
CPU Governor Profiles
- The OnDemand governor is the default option used by Android. It scales the CPU speed between the minimum and maximum speeds depending on CPU load. If the system needs more speed, the kernel will rapidly scale up the CPU speed.
- The Conservative sets the CPU speed in a similar way to the Ondemand governor, but scales the CPU up much less rapidly. This would theoretically save battery power, but may lead to less responsiveness.
- The Userspace governor is currently useless. It's another way for applications to set the CPU speed that setCPU does not use.
- The Performance governor always keeps the CPU at the maximum set frequency.
Additionally, he makes reference to another option, which is not currently part of the setCPU app, so I am assuming that this is one that was removed in later versions.
- The Powersave governor always keeps the CPU at the minimum set frequency.
- Except for "Userspace," no matter which governor you set, the CPU will always stay within the bounds of the maximum and minimum speeds you set in setCPU.
Wouldn’t it be interesting in the future to see applications themselves actually set the CPU to scale up/down based on their need. Sounds sort of like what we can experience with desktop OS’s today, doesn’t it. If you use this app, let me know what you see when you play with these settings. Enjoy!
