[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] oijjio:
Hi, all!

Some people, like me, may have downloaded a cpu-monitor app like System Tuner then notice their second cpu (cpu1) always appears offline.

First off, I recently realized that that is often inacurate. Using another app like SystemPanel would show both cpus being online, and more importantly, checking sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu1/online would show it's "1" indicating online. Many cpu app's inability to read cpu1's info is because "cpufreq" folder is missing from cpu1 folder (if you check cpu0's cpufreq folder it's always there).

K, now also, some poeple like me, thought cpu1 was really offline, and used System Tuner's "Force all cpus online" option, and viola, after reboot the second cpu showed up. But why? Cuz a "cpufreq" folder is found in cpu1 again.

What is interesting is both files "affected_cpus" and "related_cpus" would show "0 1" meaning core 0 and core 1 are in sync and both coordinated simultaneously. if you change settings(freq,governor,etc) for one core it automatically changes the other.

Now here's the tricky part, however after the tablet goes to sleep, when I wake it, cpu1's "cpufreq" folder would disappear again, meaning Sytem Tuner would show cpu1 agains as "offline". But if you chekc "online" file in folder you'll see it's still online ("1") and SystemPanes still shows cpu1 activity. However "affected_cpus" and "realated_cpus" will show only "0" meaning only cpu 0 is in this categoty and cores are no longer in sync.

Conclusion: so far what I deduced is my tablet in its default state has both cores online, but are off-sync. After turning on "Force all cpus online" and rebooting, they are both online and in-sync. After the device goes to sleep and wake, the two cores are still online but now off-sync.

The important thing about this investigation is how much it affects 3D performance. I was always confused why my device lags with a aged-game like Counter Strike portable but is perfectly smooth in a consol-quality game like Mass Effect Infiltrator. My current thought is Mass Effect acttively tweaks your cpu while most other games leave cpus as they are.

Benchmarking (using market benchmark apps):

(First off, the FPS difference may seem small but in running the actual games for some reason it made a enormous difference, often the difference between crashing and not crashing/playable or unplayable in Nova3/Shadowgun)

Default, newly flashed rom: FPS :33 (Some games fail to load graphics properly for some unknown reason)

Turn on "Force all cpus online" with Sys Tuner: FPS 39-40 (All games are silky smooth, no errors, tablet temp hotter)

"Force cpus online", then after wake from sleep: FPS: 33-34 (not as smooth before sleep, but games generally load properly)

**Switching my cpu0 gonernor to the same governor I think cpu1 is using: FPS 35-37 (no errors, almost as smooth as "Force cpus online")

Here's a crappy surprise --Cpu1 off (turn off dual core): FPS: 39. (Completely smooth, zero errors, hottest tablet temp)

**after cpufreq folder disappears from cpu1 I cannot be sure which governor cpu1 is using, but checked with Kernel Tuner and believe the system switch it back to "performance2" which is a governor foudn in my tablet.(it it not like "performance" governor) upthresh 60 downthresh 30 freqstep 5.

Conclusion:

This leads me to the conclusion that having both cpus online does not necessarily improve performance, but if the two cpus are off-sync it definitely BUTCHERS performance. It does so so badly that running one core is actually better. Having both cores run the same governor also seems to help somewhat.

Need help:

I hope the info so far may helped some people, but the help I also really need is someone to tell me how are "affected_cpus" and "related_cpus" controled by the system? So far I had no sccucess modding their values and forcing cpus to "sync". I enter "0 1" but it doesn't go through. Since having the cpus in sync seems to give good performance and lower temp (single core was good but temp was noticeably high), I want my cpu cores to remain in sync, but currently it undoes the sync after waking from sleep. I need to understand how and why the system somtimes decides to coordinate both cpus synchronously so both cpus appear under "affected_cpus" and "related_cpus"?

Thanks to anyone for reading!