Patches enable Palm Pre CPU scaling, power savings
While every update to webOS has brought speed improvements in the form of cleaned up code, Palm Pre phones across the globe have been limited to running at 500 MHz. That is in spite of the fact that that these phones pack a beefy Texas Instruments OMAP3430 processor rated at 600 MHz. What gives? Mostly it’s power management, running at the full 600 MHz will drain batteries darned fast. Over at WebOS Internals they’ve whipped up a group of new patches that not only promise to boost your Pre’s speed, but also to save battery life at the same time. How do they do it? CPU scaling and dynamic voltage reduction.
Before we go any further, these patches carry more risk to them than the standard patch application. As it would turn out, the TI OMAP3430 CPU was purposefully set to 500 MHz by Palm after TI realized that a some of the early chips couldn’t handle the full 600 MHz. These chips had their useful lifespans reduced to less than six months. While there aren’t a lot of these chips out there, Palm was the first manufacturer to use the chip, and it’s enough of a concern that they’ve chosen to not let it run at full bore (the chip is also used in the Motorola Droid and Nokia N900).
While most users will reap benefits from installing these patches, there is the chance that – like some members of the PreCentral forums – installing these patches may seriously brick your Pre. Also, one should not install more than one of these patches at a time, doing so will likely result in serious borkage. We are tinkering with the processor here, folks, so tread lightly.
