[Floppertalk] another cpu throttle program

jleyda floppertalk@oldskool.org
Tue, 5 Feb 2002 12:36:00 -0700


hello,

I've finally gotten off my butt and written a CPU throttling program that
uses hardware to slow down the machine.

The good:
a) Not a TSR - uses no memory whatsoever
b) Doesn't fiddle with timers or interrupts or reprogram any vectors.
c) absolutely no software (games) will ever mess with its settings
d) can konk my 800MHz Pentium3 down to ~5MHz in variable steps
e) works under windows 9x, although the throttle isn't as effective because
you can't turn off L1 cache under windows.
f) appears to provide very smooth slowdowns.
g) compatible with flopper!  Just run the throttle program before booting up
flopper.  
    Use the -N (no throttle) option on the flopper command line to disable
all of flopper's CPU throttling.


The bad:
a) ONLY works on intel chipsets, specifically intel chipsets with the PIIX4
and the ICH southbridge variants.
    That means it won't work on any AMD based processors!  
b) currently does not re-enable L1 cache if throttling is disabled.  (hey
it's beta software!  Gimme a break!)


I'm currently investigating if it's possible to do similar things with AMD
chipsets to provide support for another large chunk of the gaming
population.
Most VIA chipsets that I've found do *not* support this type of throttling.



There are 3 command line options:

-h or -? to get a help screen
-c do not turn off the L1 cache
-d debug mode.  In case it locks up or everything seems to be working
properly but no slowdown takes effect.

Provided your machine has a compatible intel chipset, you'll be provided
with a menu of slowdown options.  It should be fairly obvious how it works
>from there.  To change the throttling at anytime, simply re-run the program.

This program is available here:

http://www.waste.org/~winkles/throttle.zip

-jeff!



----------------------------------------------------------------------
This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to
the floppertalk mailing list.  To unsubscribe, send mail to 
minordomo@oldskool.org with a subject of 'unsubscribe floppertalk'