Clock speed split in /proc/cpuinfo
 

Before asking my two questions, I want to clarify the i686 computer I'm writing this on works properly, and that I have been coding on and using Linux for a while, and understand it clearly.

The anomaly lies within an iBook G4 1.33 GHz 7477A Altivec model. The board make is a PowerBook6,5 which is correct for the model (and it has NOT been messed with--the 6,5 *is* the right board); however, within an app that I wrote to tell me basic system information about the computer that I allowed the powerpc to run (memory, processor, computer name, OS name, and logged in user) it reports the clock speed at the mysterious speed of 666 MHz--which is, logically, 1332 MHz divided precisely by 2. Upon further investigating this in the shell, it gets weirder, as *all* results divide 1332 by 2. There's no other logical explanation for why all of the outputs report 666 MHz.

I'm NOT the ONLY iBook or PowerBook user that has had problems with /proc/cpuinfo, where the clock speed is cut down the middle. Is the G4 an early dual-core processor? This can't be, because my Apple is a single-core, so was it a concealed dual-core that was implemented with the Altivec instructions? The G4, oddly enough, was classed by Apple back in the day as a "supercomputer".

What do you think is causing or causes this funky anomaly with grepping /proc/cpuinfo (this is where my app derives the processor information)?

Processor underclocking itself when it's not in use? Does your CPU have that capability?

The processor is not underclocking itself. :) The G4 does have Altivec capability, meaning that it can gulp down several registers at once. My theory, after researching the G4 in articles, is that the processor scales to certain clock speeds, or it could be that Linux has no clue *how* to read this strange processor, causing this weird phenomenon.

Thank you for replying and for your assistance. :)