CPUClock 1.00 released

Monitor those megahertz!

Chris Johnson has released version 1.00 of CPUClock (also available here), a small application for BeagleBoard-based systems running RISC OS, that presents the user with a small status window displaying the configured fast and slow speeds of the CPU, as well as the speed at which it is currently operating.

The developer explains that from the days of the A4 – the ARM-based laptop brought out by Acorn in 1992 – RISC OS has been able to switch between two CPU speeds – fast and slow – depending on how hard the operating system thinks the CPU is working. With modern hardware such as the BeagleBoard there are a range of processor speeds that can be selected, so the relevant SWI calls in recent versions of RISC OS 5 have been extended.

The processor speed displayed in CPUClock’s status window is updated every second, and Chris believes it is instructive to watch as the operating system switches between the fast and slow speeds, depending on the amount of load the processor is experiencing – i.e. how much work it is doing, which can be affected by the number and type of applications in use. It’s also possible to change the fast and slow settings, to forcibly reduce the speed of the processor, for example, if it’s heating up in a high ambient temperature.

As it stands, the application is only suitable for use on the BeagleBoard. It doesn’t yet work correctly on PandaBoards, because one of the SWIs it makes use of (Portable_Speed2) is not yet fully implemented in the ROM image used on those boards.

 

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