---------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a VCool for FreeBSD (and for NetBSD/OpenBSD, Linux, and Solaris on x86). [only on x86 platforms with AMD's CPUs] FVCool version 1.04 CPU cooling software for AMD's Athlon/Duron ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [1. What is this software?] As is well known AMD's Athlon/Duron is a "hot" CPU. It really produces a lot of heat. This is mainly because it consumes a lot of electric power. However, there is an another reason: Generally CPU goes into power-save mode when it is in the idle state, but in almost all the mother boards this is prohibited in the case of Athlon/Duron mother boards in their original BIOS settings. This software changes the PCI configuration data of the chipset (north bridge), and allow Athlon/Duron to go into power-save mode. The principle is very simple if you have information. Actually, you can do exactly the same thing as this software manually by using the "pciconf" command in FreeBSD. Why mother board vendors release their products with such BIOS settings? Well, there is a reason: There is a possibility to get the system unstable and/or even to hang or crash the system. Therefore, this software is somewhat dangerous in this respect, and I will not take any responsibilities for problems caused by using this software. Please check the original Martin Peters's VCool web site for learning more of technical details: http://vcool.occludo.net/ Or information for other chipsets rather than KT133, see the Hidemi Oya's CoolON web site: http://homepage2.nifty.com/coolon/ (Japanese only) Actually, the information is contained the INI file (coolons.ini) of the CoolON software for Microsoft Windows, it is used in this software. The information is summarized in the top part of the code, "fvcool.c" [2. Supported chipsets] Supported chipsets now are the same as that of the CoolON above: AMD 751/761/762 Sis 730, 733, 735, 740, 741, 745, 746, 748 [*Note] VIA KT266/KT266A/KT333/KT400/KT600/KT880 VIA KT133/KT133A/KX133/KM133 [see Usage below] NVidia nForce, nForce2 ((Note)) Generally software cooling seems problematic for Sis chipsets. In Sis735 mother board (ECS K7S5A), I have experienced that the access of hard disk drive sometimes gets extremely slow. I do not know why. Maybe something missing. So I do not recommend to use it on Sis 735 mother boards. It was reported by an user that tempareture did not change (i.e. not worked) on a Sis 730 mother board, though there was no harm. [3. Usage] First, as is usual, after extracting the package and by # ./configure; make; make install you configure, compile, and install "fvcool" command in /usr/local/sbin (if you want to install in the different directory, edit Makefile, please). As for its usage, just execute it without any arguments: # fvcool # Usage: [-v (verbose)] [ -e (enable) [ -i (idle loop)]] [ -d (disable)] The usage of this program is very simple: After getting root privilege, just execute it with "-e" option like this, # fvcool -e if it does not complain like, # Supported Athlon/Duron chipset (north bridge) not found. # : Unknown error: 0 then try to check the CPU temperature. It will go down quickly by 10 to 20 degrees Celsius depending on mother boards. If not or it complains the message above, sorry this software does not work. Just forget it. ((Note)) In the present state of FreeBSD OS, the "hlt" command is not ordered when idling in the dual CPU (SMP) machine, so it is not effective on dual CPU (SMP) machines. If you want to know what it does, add an option -v(verbose), # fvcool -v Then there will be an output like this: # VIA KT266/A/KT333 found. # Change Reg0x92 0x69 --> 0xE9 # Change Reg0x95 0x1C --> 0x1E If this makes the system unstable or something wrong happens, then you can make it back to the original status, where power-save mode is prohibited, supply an option -d (disable), # fvcool -v -d # VIA KT266/A/KT333 found. # Change Reg0x92 0xE9 --> 0x69 # Change Reg0x95 0x1E --> 0x1C If you have KT133/KX133 mother boards (i.e. north bridge is KT133/KX133), it may not be enough (Depending on OS, this would be enough; at least, on Linux after kernel 2.6, it is enough). If this is not enough, first try, # fvcool -v -i then it goes into idle-loop and will not go back to the command line. Checking the CPU temperature and find it going down, then you have to use one window (or one process) in this way. To stop the program, press CTRL-C (^C). Or if you keep CPU cooling without using this program's idle-loop, then you have to change the kernel code, see 00READMEkt133.txt for details. [3. Acknowledgments and Disclaimer] * This simple software is based on the code of the Linux version of the original VCool, LVCool, as already mentioned. I thank Martin Peters very much for opening the information of the principle of Athlon/Duron cooling, and the actual software which can be used in the Linux platform. * Information for let Athlon/Duron go into power-save mode in the case of other chipsets is obtained by the Hidemi Oya's CoolON, which is for the Microsoft Windows Platform. * A patch for a new KT400 chipset is contributed by Tetsuhiro Naitoh. I appreciate it so much. * A patch for compiling on OpenBSD is provided by Markus Hennecke. * Information of Hidemi Oya's CoolON project and it's mailing list is a great source of new chipsets. Many thanks for it. * John Wehle provided platform independent IO port read/write codes (inline x86 assembler), which make the code more portable for other platforms. Thanks for the nice contributions. The programs are under the modified BSD license (see the CopyRight file), and they are freely copied and distributed for non-commercial use. Any modifications and changes to the programs, which do not conflict the license, are welcome. The author is not at all responsible if anyone have any problems or damages when using the programs. The author may not keep the development of the programs any further. But if someone develops any new better programs based on my own, I am very glad if feedback is made to me (of course, it is not at all any duties!). August 20, 2004 Yoshifumi R. Shimizu, Department of Fundamental Physics, Kyushu University e-mail : yrsh2scp@mbox.nc.kyushu-u.ac.jp http://www.nt.phys.kyushu-u.ac.jp/shimizu/index.html