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[Jonathon Hodges <question50259@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Question #50259 on Ubuntu Eee changed:
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu-eee/+question/50259

    Status: Open => Answered

Jonathon Hodges proposed the following answer:
Hello Van_Wilder,
Ondemand means that the computer will switch to full cpu speed (1.67Mhz or something like that on my Intel Atom based 901) as soon as it needs to.  If you open a new application for example, it'll jump up to full speed for a few seconds.  After it's done the hard work though, it'll drop down to low speed which saves you some battery life.  In simple terms, it's underclocking your cpu unless it needs to run at full (normal) clock speed.

The mighty Wikipedia explains here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpeedStep

SpeedStep is just Intel's fancy trade name for this technique of
altering processor speed to suit the task.

If anyone's interested in getting the cpu speed monitor so you can alter the processor speed manually or to default to low speed if you're running out of battery, see this question here:
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu-eee/+question/49059

Personally I'd stay away from overclocking on the eee, it's only a
little laptop and I think you're likely to overheat it if you run it
faster than the standard maximum clock speed.

Using the cpu speed monitor to change your preference between
Performance (I want speed but not battery life), Ondemand (I'll let it
choose as I go) or Powersave (I want battery life but less speed) is
easy and quite safe.

Does that make sense?

Jon

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