NOTE: This page is outdated, dynamic ticks are now supported in the mainline Linux kernel, see CONFIG_NO_HZ. Dynamic Tick Timer for Linux (dyn-tick) makes the HZ dynamic. When using dyn-tick, the system runs at full HZ during load, and skips ticks when possible while idle. This allows extra power saving measures to be taken during the longer idle periods. On a PC, the HZ can vary between 6Hz during idle and 1000Hz during load. Dyn-tick was originally implemented for TI's OMAP ARM architecture, and has been in use in the linux-omap tree since October 2004. Dyn-tick is based on earlier similar implementations, mostly on the 2.4 VST patch of the Linux High Resolution Timers project, and 2.6 s390 NO_IDLE_HZ patch. Tools: pmstats-0.3.gz pmstats-0.2.gz pmstats-0.1.gz timetest.gz dyntick-test.c Con Colivas has the most recent dynamic tick patches for x86 on his website Older dyn-tick patches for x86: patch-dynamic-tick-2.6.12-rc6-050610-1 patch-dynamic-tick-debug-2.6.12-rc6-050610-1 Older dyn-tick patches for x86: patch-dynamic-tick-2.6.12-rc6-050609-2 patch-dynamic-tick-debug-2.6.12-rc6-050609-1 patch-dynamic-tick-2.6.12-rc5-050602-2 patch-dynamic-tick-2.6.12-rc5-050602-1 patch-dynamic-tick-2.6.12-rc2-050408-1 patch-dynamic-tick-2.6.12-rc2-050406-1 patch-dynamic-tick-2.6.11-rc2-050127-1 patch-dynamic-tick-2.6.11-rc1-050125-1 patch-dynamic-tick-2.6.11-rc1-050118-1 Dyn-tick for ARM has been integrated to the mainline tree after 2.6.13-rc1: Generic ARM dyn-tick support SA_TIMER flags Idle loop call ARM OMAP dyn-tick support Other links: Linux High Resolution Timers Project s390 NO_IDLE_HZ patch First dyn-tick patch thread on LKML Second dyn-tick patch thread on LKML Search LKML for dynamic tick