Re: 1.7GHz CPU running at 599MHz, FSB (only?) running at 99.9MHz

More inline comments. 

John A. Jones, CISSP
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-----Original Message-----
From: pctech-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:pctech-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Dan
Sent: Thursday, July 06, 2006 10:56 AM
To: PC Technical Discussion for iSeries Users
Subject: Re: [PCTECH] 1.7GHz CPU running at 599MHz,FSB (only?) running
at 99.9MHz

IMO, when the Thinkpad is docked at work, it should be running full

tilt, or at least respond immediately to a demand.

Check your BIOS for settings to do this all the time.  The Power applet
in Control Panel doesn't seem to have a setting for CPU speed; just when
to turn off the monitor & HD.

Realize that most of the time most people don't need full-tilt power to
do their work so the power/heat savings are worthwhile.  The CPU changes
speeds really fast so there's no noticeable problem with letting the
speed go up/down as needed.  Cycling down the power/heat probably
extends the life of the components as well.

Intel's seemingly dated description of SpeedStep: "Enhanced Intel
SpeedStep(r) technology enables real-time dynamic switching of the
voltage and frequency between two performance modes based on processor
demand. This occurs by switching the system bus ratios, core operating
voltage, and core processor speeds without resetting the system. The
Mobile Pentium(r) III Processor - M is available at the following
frequencies and voltages (Maximum Performance mode/Battery Optimized
mode): 1133/733 MHz, 1066/733 MHz, 1000/733 MHz, 933/733 MHz and 866/667
MHz at 1.40V/1.15V."

What's interesting about the DOC1 application error this morning is

that I was 

using it yesterday, and it hadn't reported a problem with the CPU

speed; 

perhaps it was already running a higher clock speed?  This morning,

DOC1 was 

the first app I opened up.  Yesterday, I probably already had Lotus

Notes and 

Firefox running.

That's probably why; the other apps caused the CPU speed to trickle up.

I understand your opinion that the app shouldn't care about the chip's

speed, 

that's my take on it too, but I wonder if a chip can be too slow that

could 

cause an app to fail?  Frankly, the performance of this app,

*especially* when 

loading a form, is glaringly slow on this system, and I'd hate to see

it on a 

slower box.  I also wouldn't mind maxxing out the RAM on this,

currently it 

has 1GB.

I don't see how slow performance would cause the app to fail.  Become
unresponsive, bring the PC to it's knees, cause timeouts yes, but
actually failing should be exceedingly rare.

Windows XP tweaks to maximize performance:
http://www.codecavalier.com/blackviper/WinXP/servicecfg.htm  (Black
Viper apparently no longer has his domain; this is a copy)

 L2 Cache = 2048 Kbytes

That's the good chip. :)  BTW, the current generation IxS in the iSeries
uses the PentiumM chip to control heat & power.

The FSB may be 100MHz but it is likely double or quad-pumped; i.e. at
100MHz it's bandwidth is probably 200 or 400 Mb/sec.

A few Google results mentioned this too, but I need to study up on this

to 

understand it better.  I just want to make certain that the Thinkpad is

running at full tilt when applications demand it.

http://www.intel.com/products/processor/pentiumm/index.htm shows the FSB
at 400 or 533MHz; you are at 400MHz which is 100MHz quad-pumped.

Ditto here, I have zero complaints about speed and response when not 
considering the DOC1 app.  Well, ok, Lotus Notes is a pig too, but I 
can avoid using that for the most part.

Outlook can be a pig as well.  What is it about messaging that causes an
app to becomes so darn bloated?


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