>>32 How is Granola different from Intel's SpeedStep, AMD's PowerNow!, Cool'n'Quiet, etc.?
This is a bit like comparing apples to oranges. Intel SpeedStep, AMD PowerNow!, and Cool'n'Quiet provide an application programming interface (API) for utilizing dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS). That is, these technologies give other software (e.g. Granola) the ability to change the power consumption and frequency of the processor; i.e. these APIs do not carry out any power management themselves. Granola takes advantage of the availability of these tools. Granola dynamically and intelligently adjusts the power consumed by your machine based on CPU demand. The CPU management is implemented using algorithms developed by MiserWare that cleverly predict your CPU’s usage.
Long story short, SpeedStep, PowerNow!, Cool'n'Quiet and others simply provide the capability for carrying out DVFS. Software, like Granola, is needed to manage these technologies so they save you energy without impacting what you are doing.
How is Granola better than my current power-saving software (e.g., RMClock, Windows Power Manager, OnDemand, etc.)?
We’ve written a short paper describing the before and after effects of Granola under various benchmarks including DVD playback, gaming, and extensive document editing. The results are discussed on the following webpage:
http://grano.la/software/benchmark.php 中略 The key difference between Granola and other software that manages your CPU power is that Granola was designed to minimize performance loss ensuring you don’t waste energy unnecessarily and the power management scheme doesn’t impact your productivity.