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Idle is a state that a computer processor is in when it is not being used by any program. Every program or task that runs on a computer system occupies a certain amount of processing time on the CPU. If the CPU has completed all tasks it is idle. Modern processors use idle time to save power.
In many applications, the CPU and other components are idle much of the time, so idle power contributes significantly to overall system power usage. When the CPU uses power management features to reduce energy use, other components, such as the motherboard and chipset, take up a larger proportion of the computer's energy.
TM2 reduces processor temperature by lowering the CPU clock multiplier, and thereby the processor core speed. [2] In contrast, Thermal Monitor 1 inserts an idle cycle into the CPU for thermal control without decreasing multipliers. TM1 and TM2 are associated with DTS/PECI — Digital Temperature Sensor/Platform Environment Control Interface. [3]
ACPI 1.0 (1996) defines a way for a CPU to go to idle "C states", but defines no frequency-scaling system.. ACPI 2.0 (2000) introduces a system of P states (power-performance states) that a processor can use to communicate its possible frequency–power settings to the OS.
Different software is used by different motherboards. There are also third-party programs that work on a variety of motherboards and allow wide customization of fan behavior depending on temperature readings from the motherboard, CPU, and GPU sensors, as well as allowing manual control. Two such programs are SpeedFan [11] and Argus Monitor. [12]
CPU Idle: 0x05: Requests system suspend. 0) Clock halted until timer tick interrupt. 1) Slow clock [1] CPU Busy: 0x06: Driver tells system APM to restore clock speed of the CPU. Set Power State: 0x07: Set system or device into Suspend/Standby/Off state. Enable/Disable Power Management: 0x08: Restore APM BIOS Power-On Defaults: 0x09: Get Power ...
A finned air cooled heatsink with fan clipped onto a CPU, with a smaller passive heatsink without fan in the background A 3-fan heatsink mounted on a video card to maximize cooling efficiency of the GPU and surrounding components Commodore 128DCR computer's switch-mode power supply, with a user-installed 60 mm cooling fan.
For example, hardware timers send interrupts to the CPU at regular intervals. Most operating systems execute a HLT instruction when there is no immediate work to be done, putting the processor into an idle state. In Windows NT, for example, this instruction is run in the "System Idle Process". On x86 processors, the opcode of HLT is 0xF4.