Intel(R) Speed Select Technology User Guide

The Intel(R) Speed Select Technology (Intel(R) SST) provides a powerful new collection of features that give more granular control over CPU performance. With Intel(R) SST, one server can be configured for power and performance for a variety of diverse workload requirements.

Refer to the links below for an overview of the technology:

• https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/architecture-and-technology/speed-select-technology-article.html

• https://builders.intel.com/docs/networkbuilders/intel-speed-select-technology-base-frequency-enhancing-performance.pdf

These capabilities are further enhanced in some of the newer generations of server platforms where these features can be enumerated and controlled dynamically without pre-configuring via BIOS setup options. This dynamic configuration is done via mailbox commands to the hardware. One way to enumerate and configure these features is by using the Intel Speed Select utility.

This document explains how to use the Intel Speed Select tool to enumerate and control Intel(R) SST features. This document gives example commands and explains how these commands change the power and performance profile of the system under test. Using this tool as an example, customers can replicate the messaging implemented in the tool in their production software.

intel-speed-select configuration tool

Most Linux distribution packages may include the "intel-speed-select" tool. If not, it can be built by downloading the Linux kernel tree from kernel.org. Once downloaded, the tool can be built without building the full kernel.

From the kernel tree, run the following commands:

# cd tools/power/x86/intel-speed-select/
# make
# make install

Getting Help

To get help with the tool, execute the command below:

# intel-speed-select --help

The top-level help describes arguments and features. Notice that there is a multi-level help structure in the tool. For example, to get help for the feature "perf-profile":

# intel-speed-select perf-profile --help

To get help on a command, another level of help is provided. For example for the command info "info":

# intel-speed-select perf-profile info --help

Summary of platform capability

To check the current platform and driver capabilities