[Q] Number of CPU cores? - HTC Sensation

I've already asked it somewhere else, but the only one answer I've got seemed to me to be wrong.
Here there's the question:
I would expect that my Sensation's /proc/cpuinfo showed 2 CPUs as processor 0 and 1.
This should be normal for a Linux kernel running on a "dual core CPU", both in case of actual twin cores and in case of "dual threaded single core" CPU.
But what I can see is just 1 core as processor:0.
How can I tell my device is usign both cores?
Thanks.
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Your device only uses cpu1 under heavy load. You can monitor this by downloading a cpu monitor like system tuner and checking it out for yourself.
Sent from my HTC Sensation XE with Beats Audio using XDA Premium App

Device uses one core until 2nd is needed, to save power, you can force both online using system tuner
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using xda premium

All this is something I've never seen in (real) Linux. Real news to me!
That is, I have, say, 8 cores with 7 idle at 100% and one working on low loads.
But I'm still able to see 8 cores in /proc/cpuinfo wich shows the maximum number of cores I can rely upon, despite they are in use or not.
Thanks for the answers.

Sensation doesn't use the core no. 2 unless it is under heavy load as stated. But you can always force the two CPUs online using apps like System Tuner if you ever really need two cores active at the same time

Uqbar said:
All this is something I've never seen in (real) Linux. Real news to me!
That is, I have, say, 8 cores with 7 idle at 100% and one working on low loads.
But I'm still able to see 8 cores in /proc/cpuinfo wich shows the maximum number of cores I can rely upon, despite they are in use or not.
Thanks for the answers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sensation is asynchronous SMP architecture, and uses the Linux kernel's built-in CPU hot plugging feature. That's probably why you have never send something like this before. And iirc, Intel CPU is synchronous SMP while and is asynchronous SMP, but doesn't use the same CPU hot plugging like htc does.
Sent from my HTC Sensation

Related

How do the Dual cores work in this phone?

I got my sensation and love it, I have Android Revolution 3.1 and the RCMix version 1 kernel. It is currently overclocked to 1.78 ghz with Daemon OC.
I was curious though, I heard that some games and apps are not optimized for the dual cores. How do they work in these situations? Will one power down while the other works?
Also, In the newest update for Revolution HD, in the change log he mentions how the dual cores run constantly and that this is a first. Wouldn't this drain battery life?
Sorry about starting a new thread, im just curious. Thanks for any help!!
yes it s a very good question
i am gonna try that rom
especially about battery life.
any idea ?
i'd love the answer to this one myself.
Anyone??
Sent from my Virtuous Sensation, and loving it...
About the thing where the cores run constantly; I've been following the oc dual core thread, and someone found a way to keep both cores online and that overall, it had almost no effect on battery life but seemed to increase performance slightly.
To describe the way our dual core chips are setup would be very complicated, and would draw away from you initial question.
Just know, it shouldn't effect your battery too much.
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA App
Generally
Dual Core = Better battery life
As long as the software is optimised to use them both
Really? Wow i thought dual core will consume more battery
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA Premium App
The dual cores in our phones are asynchronous, meaning instead of both cores splitting the workload evenly like some other chipsets, one core will remain offline until it's needed then spool up to assist with the load. This was causing a problem with overclocking because only one core was recognizing the clock speed and governor settings. Keeping both cores idling allows them to both recognize the proper settings. The thread about it can be found here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1233103
CrazyCharlie said:
The dual cores in our phones are asynchronous, meaning instead of both cores splitting the workload evenly like some other chipsets, one core will remain offline until it's needed then spool up to assist with the load. This was causing a problem with overclocking because only one core was recognizing the clock speed and governor settings. Keeping both cores idling allows them to both recognize the proper settings. The thread about it can be found here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1233103
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Click to collapse
dual core. Keeping it simple
think of a double Decker bus as synchronous CPUs
And two single deck buses. As asynchronous CPUs
passengers are your workload.
Most cpus out there are synchronous. so this means both processors split the load continuously at any one time. . Eg galaxy s2 and Intel CPUs
Asynchronous
Each core works independently from the other. Amd cpus do this and sensation.
But sensation only keeps one active till it needs the other one
Synchronous dual core cpus. These are your double decks. the bus Carries people and uses both floors at one time
Asynchronous in sensation.
these are your single decks. Only one bus will carry passengers. But when the bus is full or cannot cope the second bus is used
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using XDA App
xl VipeR lx said:
dual core. Keeping it simple
think of a double Decker bus as synchronous CPUs
And two single deck buses. As asynchronous CPUs
passengers are your workload.
Most cpus out there are synchronous. so this means both processors split the load continuously at any one time. . Eg galaxy s2 and Intel CPUs
Asynchronous
Each core works independently from the other. Amd cpus do this and sensation.
But sensation only keeps one active till it needs the other one
Synchronous dual core cpus. These are your double decks. the bus Carries people and uses both floors at one time
Asynchronous in sensation.
these are your single decks. Only one bus will carry passengers. But when the bus is full or cannot cope the second bus is used
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using XDA App
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Click to collapse
first : the best explanation so far about how this phone works , two thumbs up !!!!
2nd : I'm currently thinking on moving from my Htc DHD to a new dual core phone ( had the Atrix , hated the pentile screen )
so in terms of everyday use ( i don't give a s**t about benchmarks ) which one is better to get - SGS2 or HTC Sensation ?
moshikko said:
first : the best explanation so far about how this phone works , two thumbs up !!!!
2nd : I'm currently thinking on moving from my Htc DHD to a new dual core phone ( had the Atrix , hated the pentile screen )
so in terms of everyday use ( i don't give a s**t about benchmarks ) which one is better to get - SGS2 or HTC Sensation ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL well I.am the noobproof dude. so just keeping it simple.
At the moment its hard to say. Depends on your taste and also true power of sensation isn't even seen yet
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using XDA App

[Q] CPU speed of Sensation

Hi guys,
Had a question, if anyone knows completely.
I spoke to HTC customer support twice, and both times they said the actual CPU speed is 2x 0.6Ghz and NOT 2x 1.2Ghz. (Which 1.2Ghz DualCore would imply)
Have I spoken to two idiots or are they right...?
I dont like the way it is advertised if they are right.
Liroy : Ok then I had one more question
Liroy : The CPU of the Sensation
Liroy : It states it is dual core, however, one of your collegues told me this is 2x 0.6Ghz
Liroy : I figured it would be 2x 1.2Ghz
Liroy : which one is correct?
Georgina: Our specification states: 1.2 GHz, dual core
Liroy : Yes.. So is that 2x 1.2Ghz or 2x 0.6Ghz?
Georgina: Each process will have 1.2 Ghz
Liroy : I'm sorry but I have to ask, is that due to the app splitting up in childs or simply because it can use *one* core of 1.2Ghz and another process can use the second core of 1.2Ghz, basically having 2 cores of 1.2Ghz each?
Liroy : I realise it's a rather technical question and not sure if you guys get such information but it is rather important to me, lol. I use the phone for it's processing capability's to the maximum really
Georgina: They both add up to 1.2GHz
Liroy : Okay, so it's not 1.2Ghz Dual Core but actually 2x 0.6Ghz and thus 0.6Ghz dualcore
Liroy : I'm sorry but the answers you are giving me leave a lot of room for the cores to be either 0.6Ghz each or 1.2Ghz each. If they add up to 1.2Ghz it means they are 0.6Ghz each
Georgina: yes they add up to 1.2GHz
Liroy : Hm... So the specifications of the Sensation device are actually not what HTC is advertising. That's not very nice :/
Georgina: I do apologise and will be passing this information on
Liroy : Ok, thank you and have a nice day
Georgina: Your welcome
Georgina: Thank you
Georgina: And you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The person you talked to knows nothing about this (and follows the misnomer that you multiply the speed by the number of cores, but in this case, the complete opposite). It's 1.2 GHz per core.and no, youdont multiply or divide by the number of cores.
If HTC advertised by multiplying the core speed by the number f cores, they'd be in a ton of trouble for misleading advertising since no one in the industry does multi core stuff that way.
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA App
geoffcorey said:
The person you talked to knows nothing about this (and follows the misnomer that you multiply the speed by the number of cores, but in this case, the complete opposite). It's 1.2 GHz per core.and no, youdont multiply or divide by the number of cores.
If HTC advertised by multiplying the core speed by the number f cores, they'd be in a ton of trouble for misleading advertising since no one in the industry does multi core stuff that way.
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA App
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Click to collapse
That is correct although I did have an old HP which was sold as 2 ghz dual core which turned out to be 2 1ghz cores. Still ubuntu overclocked them to 2ghz per core
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using XDA App
geoffcorey is right, you cant multiply or divide
Speed is still 1.2Ghz but with 2 cores.
Each core has its own cache and fsb. And can run parallel tasks/processes, which is faster than a single core.
Overclock?
HTC Sensation
Stock ROM - Rooted
Thank you all for your responses
Yes I know you cannot multiply or divide it, it doesnt mean it has 2.4Ghz or anything
Though, in theory it can process nearly twice as much as a 1.2Ghz single core.
But both HTC employees claimed it had 2 cores of 0.6Ghz each, totalling a total strength of 1.2Ghz.
I already thought it was ridicilous but well.. You start having doubts if 2 employees say so
liroyvh said:
But both HTC employees claimed it had 2 cores of 0.6Ghz each, totalling a total strength of 1.2Ghz.
I already thought it was ridicilous but well.. You start having doubts if 2 employees say so
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
judging by the responses you got in the chat, you had some of the lowest level "tech support" you could have possibly found, reading a (quite horrible) script to you. Those people shouldn't even be "helping" people to troubleshoot imho.
geoffcorey said:
judging by the responses you got in the chat, you had some of the lowest level "tech support" you could have possibly found, reading a (quite horrible) script to you. Those people shouldn't even be "helping" people to troubleshoot imho.
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Click to collapse
Thanks, I had the same idea.
She was pretty much dodging the question pretty much showing she didnt really know what was I was trying to ask.
Before that we were discussing the issue with the power button/lock screen (screen flashes) that multiple people have reported and she kept saying: That's unoffical HTC information.
Doh, it's on a discussion forum. And then she kept repeating: HTC does not know about this issue.
Told me to send my phone in for repair while multiple people are having issues since the update to the latest firmware.
Trying to explain this to her was... Well, it didnt solve anything.
Ohwell, hope they fix it sometime soon anyway
Thanks for your replies!
It's 1.2ghz dual core.. guess what?
liroyvh said:
Thanks, I had the same idea.
She was pretty much dodging the question pretty much showing she didnt really know what was I was trying to ask.
Before that we were discussing the issue with the power button/lock screen (screen flashes) that multiple people have reported and she kept saying: That's unoffical HTC information.
Doh, it's on a discussion forum. And then she kept repeating: HTC does not know about this issue.
Told me to send my phone in for repair while multiple people are having issues since the update to the latest firmware.
Trying to explain this to her was... Well, it didnt solve anything.
Ohwell, hope they fix it sometime soon anyway
Thanks for your replies!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't trust half of what HTC 'support' say! If you want some fun and games with what they've said before then check out page four of this thread:
www.tinyurl.com/desiresfirmwareissues
..which also exists purely for the issues since the latest firmware update. You'll see some of the enjoyment we're getting courtesy of HTC.
It is actually 1.5Ghz dual core underclocked to 1.2Ghz, if you don't care about battery life (like me) 1.5 is the way to go , however you need a custom rom so there is a small chance that you might lose the warranty

How can you tell if your using both cpu cores???

How can you tell if your using both cpu cores???
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA Premium App
Or the flip side of that coin, can I power down one of my cores?
From my understanding both cores run in sync, meaning they both run all the time at the same speed. It is the tegra 2 design. Other dual core chip sets run asynchronous
jcbofkc said:
From my understanding both cores run in sync, meaning they both run all the time at the same speed. It is the tegra 2 design. Other dual core chip sets run asynchronous
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Click to collapse
I'm not sure that answers either question - just because both cores are running on the same clock doesn't mean they are both doing work. Obviously, two cores can't work on the same thread or process at the same time. Some executive has to manage the work load and the associated resource sharing. Does GB really do any multi-core? Does ICS?
All good questions. I was wondering the same thing.
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA Premium App
namklak said:
I'm not sure that answers either question - just because both cores are running on the same clock doesn't mean they are both doing work. Obviously, two cores can't work on the same thread or process at the same time. Some executive has to manage the work load and the associated resource sharing. Does GB really do any multi-core? Does ICS?
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Click to collapse
Excellent points. I found this.
http://www.tested.com/news/dual-core-vs-single-core-arm-what-does-an-extra-core-really-get-you/2337/
In Android 2.2 Froyo, there are no dual-core optimizations at all. The system just sees a fast SoC, but Is unable to thread processes effectively. Even in the newer Gingerbread build of Android, there is virtually no support for dual-core SoCs. The ext4 file system added to Android 2.3 sill see a modest boost in the area of I/O performance, but that's about it. Right now, Android on phones does not understand dual-core chips.
A dual-core device might be a really snappy experience, but that's not because of the number of cores per se. The SoC is just fast, even without proper process threading. You can get a similarly responsive device with a regular old single-core SoC. Yes we know, how quaint.
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Activating second core

As I heard, ICS does not support the second core. Does anybody ha an advice how to activate? Running ICS with a single core doesn't make fun
Where did you hear this? Dual-core support was added in Honeycomb and is present in ICS.
here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1231953&page=16
Post 160....I'm not that familiar with Android like I'm with WM, that's why I'm asking such noob questions. All I want is to get my Xe running
Um, I don't know where you've been but ics is where multi core is FULLY supported and implemented.
While it "seems" core 2 isn't being used/activated, that's because our CPU architecture is asynchronous smp (meaning cpu0 = always on, while cpu1 = on when cu0 reaches a certain load threshold).
The CPU is not meant to have both cores on at the same time for extended time periods. (And even though many claim that on the rough ics leak, forcing cpu1 online increases phone's speed, they're experiencing a placebo effect)
Also, those people in that tthread have no clue what they're talking about when it comes to our CPU.
Ics cannot and will not change our could architecture! People are just using wrong ideas and terminology and wrong reasoning. Our phone is asynchronous smp, and when people read that gb didn't support multi core truly, they though it meant ics would always have both cores online/activated, but that would be changing the CPU architecture to synchronous smp, which you cannot change.
Tl;Dr: they are wrong, ics supports multi fire truely, our phone will still turn off second core when the cpu0 load threshold isn't met (load of cpu0, not speed of cpu0).
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G
the solution is in that post allready,,
system tuner pro and force CPU1 online
ok, thank you both.......I was just looking at the system tuner screen which said that core II is off when gov is set on batt saving......will test the ICS for a while and will decice then if I go back to the old one.
I appreciate your help!!!
Ive found that using system tuner to force all cpus online with ICS makes for a LAGGY experience. Crappy benchmarks as well.
Matt
Well, it showed me that one core is offline....
Prinz069 said:
Well, it showed me that one core is offline....
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Click to collapse
That is normal. That's how asynchronous smp works.
Cpu0 = always online, cpu1= online when cpu0 meets a load threshold, then goes back to offline when the load on cpu0 drops below the threshold.
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G
Here is a test that doubters can perform to prove the 2nd core activates when needed:
Run a benchmark like CF Bench that really puts the processor to the test. While running, open up system tuner and watch the other core. You will see it come on and off alot. For me, it just stayed on while I ran CF Bench. When the benchmark was over, the core turned off. Perfecto!
Matt

[q] cpu chipset

does anyone know if setting the CPU SPEED to 1.5 GHz is dangerous while the SENSATION XL has the same chipset as the desire s has (Qualcomm Snapdragon MS8255) and the SENSATION XL's CPU speed is set to 1.5GHz .
sensation has msm8260 (dual core 1.2-1.5 GHz and adreno 220)
Sensation XL indeed has MSM8255.
Just like in PCs, chipsets in phones are binned not only by their type, but also by their target frequency. You don't go overclocking Core2Duo 1.8 GHz to 2.4 GHz because it's "the same CPU", right? Because it isn't the same CPU. The same applies here.
אז זה מסוכן או לא ?
English, please.
Answer - would you run the CPU on your computer at 1.5x the speed it was made to run, because there's CPU with the same name (i3/i5/i7/whatever) that runs at 1.5x the speed?
The same answer applies to your phone.
I expect people to be able to make minimal logic work with their own brains rather than just answering "yes/no". I think that this way people actually understand more than what they've asked for.
i guessed that was the answer but just wanted to be sure...
thanks anyway !
msm8255 should run stable on 1.5GHz (if stock freq is lower)
441Excelsior said:
msm8255 should run stable on 1.5GHz (if stock freq is lower)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No it won't. It depends on the specific part, and few parts run stock 1.5 GHz without stability issues surfacing / burning out very fast (if overvolted).
If you really want - you can try it on T-Mobile G2, that has MSM8255 of the earliest bin, with stock at 800MHz. Good luck, don't forget to write how did you like a phone as a toaster.
I suggest refraining from bad advice, especially when it's in the forum and it's not your phone you're talking about. You can burn your phones as much as you like, but don't go around suggesting it to others. Just let me understand something: you have stock non-rooted ICS and have no idea about such basics as which guide to use to downgrade, but you allow yourself posting about chipset frequencies?
so which speed can i overclock to that shouldn't turn my device into a toaster ?
deanshugan said:
so which speed can i overclock to that shouldn't turn my device into a toaster ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1.2 runs most things with no lag.
Sometimes you're the windshield; sometimes you're the bug.
- Mark Knopfler.
The point is each chip is different even if the same model
What works for me on my device won't necessarily work for you
So test and see if your brave enough, but be aware of the consequences
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium
I overclock my ds to1.5 every time I play games and it doesn't even get warm. So I think it's pretty harmless.
Sent from my Desire S using xda premium

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