Intel P-State, Schedutil Get Updated For Linux 4.12 Kernel

Intel's P-State CPU frequency scaling driver continues getting in shape with the latest mainline Linux Git code and the CPUFreq Schedutil governor also received some tuning, among other power management and ACPI changes vetted for Linux 4.12.

For the Linux 4.12 kernel, the Intel P-State driver's sysfs interface has been reworked so it's now "more straightforward and more intuitive", P-State should now work with all CPUs advertising hardware P-States (HWP), the load-based P-State selection algorithm will now be used on a wider range of systems, there is now Gemini Lake support in P-State, and there has been other clean-ups and optimization work to this Intel CPU scaling driver alternative to ACPI CPUFreq.

Overall, the P-State driver has got into much better shape the past few kernel cycles. I'll post some power/performance CPU scaling driver/governor comparisons of Linux 4.12 soon once the merge window settles down.

The 4.12 power management updates also include a Tegra186/Parker SoC (Jetson TX2) CPUFreq driver, MT8176/MT817x additions to Mediatek's CPUFreq driver, and a variety of other support additions and tuning.

The ACPI pull has various code changes, updates to the device enumeration code, and other work.