[gnome-system-monitor/wip/mallard-help: 50/62] Rewrite and relicense cpu- topics
- From: Ekaterina Gerasimova <egerasimov src gnome org>
- To: commits-list gnome org
- Cc:
- Subject: [gnome-system-monitor/wip/mallard-help: 50/62] Rewrite and relicense cpu- topics
- Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2014 22:23:00 +0000 (UTC)
commit cd8a5fb55cd762ea2e1457844a7f2aeed0b40af4
Author: Phil Bull <philbull gmail com>
Date: Tue Jan 28 14:36:09 2014 +0000
Rewrite and relicense cpu- topics
help/C/cpu-check.page | 35 ++++++++++++++++-------------------
help/C/cpu-mem-normal.page | 29 +++++++++++++++++------------
help/C/cpu-multicore.page | 32 +++++++++++++-------------------
3 files changed, 46 insertions(+), 50 deletions(-)
---
diff --git a/help/C/cpu-check.page b/help/C/cpu-check.page
index b56fb3e..870a31e 100644
--- a/help/C/cpu-check.page
+++ b/help/C/cpu-check.page
@@ -2,33 +2,30 @@
type="topic" style="task"
id="cpu-check">
<info>
- <revision version="0.1" date="2011-08-19" status="review"/>
+ <revision version="0.1" date="2014-01-28" status="review"/>
<link type="guide" xref="index" group="cpu" />
+ <link type="seealso" xref="process-identify-hog" />
+ <link type="seealso" xref="process-priority-change" />
+ <link type="seealso" xref="cpu-mem-normal" />
+ <link type="seealso" xref="cpu-multicore" />
+
+ <include href="legal.xml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"/>
+
<credit type="author copyright">
<name>Phil Bull</name>
<email>philbull gmail com</email>
- <years>2011</years>
- </credit>
- <credit type="author copyright">
- <name>Kelly Sinnott</name>
- <email>ksinnott5ht gmail com</email>
- <years>2011</years>
+ <years>2014</years>
</credit>
- <desc>Your computer can only do so many things at once. <em>CPU utilization</em> tells you if it is
being over-stretched.</desc>
+ <desc>The amount of CPU being used tells you how much work the computer is trying to do.</desc>
</info>
<title>Check how much processor (CPU) capacity is being used</title>
-
- <comment>
- <cite date="2011-06-18" href="mailto:philbull gmail com">Phil Bull</cite>
- <p>Explain that computers have finite processing resources and can only run so many things
simultaneously, by sharing processor time between processes. Explain how to check how much CPU capacity is
being used, mention how this affects computers with multiple processors, and explain that high usage (~100%)
means that the computer will run more slowly.</p>
- <p>Be careful here, as there are a number of technical terms (process, CPU/processor, multi-core, system
resources...) that may be used here, but which will need to be explained for less advanced users.</p>
- </comment>
-
- <p>The role of the <em>CPU</em>, or central processing unit, is to execute the series of instructions
called a <em>computer program</em>. While a program is being executed, it is known as a <em>process</em>. At
any given time, your computer will likely be running many processes simultaneously. There are individual
processes to manage your internet connection, audio settings, passwords, file manager, and so on. Some
applications are composed of multiple processes known as <em>threads</em>. The CPU must divide its processing
"attention" between the running processes. The amount of time required by each process is expressed as a
percentage by the System Monitor.</p>
- <note><p>Some processors are actually composed of multiple independent processors in one component. These
are referred to as <em>multi-core</em> processors. Multi-core CPUs allow an increase in overall performance
otherwise limited by physical constraints on a single core. However, a single process or thread is limited to
a single core. Because of this, a single demanding, non-threaded process can dominate a core, failing to take
advantage of the full CPU.</p></note>
-
-<p>To view a live graph of CPU usage over time, click the <gui>Resources</gui> tab. The graph labeled "CPU
History" will show a line for each core. Multiple cores will be color-coded; these colors can be changed by
clicking the corresponding colored box for each core under the graph.</p>
+
+ <p>To check how much of your computer's processor is currently being used, go to the <gui>Resources</gui>
tab and look at the <gui>CPU History</gui> chart. This tells you how much work the computer is currently
doing.</p>
+
+ <p>Many computers have more than one processor (sometimes called <em>multi-core</em> systems). Each
processor is shown separately on the chart. If you want, you can change the color used for each processor by
clicking one of the colored blocks below the chart.</p>
+
+ <p>You can also change how rapidly the chart is updated (the update interval), and how the lines for each
processor are displayed (e.g. as a stacked area chart). Change the relevant options by clicking <gui>System
Monitor</gui>, then select <gui>Preferences</gui>, and then the <gui>Resources</gui> tab.</p>
</page>
diff --git a/help/C/cpu-mem-normal.page b/help/C/cpu-mem-normal.page
index 59df7c2..73ebe8b 100644
--- a/help/C/cpu-mem-normal.page
+++ b/help/C/cpu-mem-normal.page
@@ -2,29 +2,34 @@
type="topic" style="task"
id="cpu-mem-normal">
<info>
- <revision version="0.1" date="2011-08-19" status="review"/>
+ <revision version="0.1" date="2014-01-28" status="review"/>
<link type="guide" xref="index" group="cpu" />
+
+ <include href="legal.xml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"/>
+
<credit type="author copyright">
<name>Phil Bull</name>
<email>philbull gmail com</email>
- <years>2011</years>
- </credit>
- <credit type="author copyright">
- <name>Kelly Sinnott</name>
- <email>ksinnott5ht gmail com</email>
- <years>2011</years>
+ <years>2014</years>
</credit>
- <desc>Lots of memory or CPU time will be used if the computer is performing difficult tasks, like
playing a game or ripping music from a CD.</desc>
+ <desc>If the computer is doing a lot of work, it will use more processor time and more memory.</desc>
</info>
<title>Is it normal for my computer to be using this much CPU or memory?</title>
+
+ <p>All of the programs running on your computer share CPU (processor) time and memory. If you run many
programs at once, or if some programs are doing a lot of work, a higher percentage of both of these things
will be used.</p>
- <p> There are certain tasks which require more processing time or memory. This may include playing
video (in a media player or in your web browser), playing a graphics-intensive game, burning a CD or DVD, or
other complex tasks. Another possibility is that there are simply too many processes running; a cumulative
effect may be just as taxing as a single culprit. For example, you may have several browser windows open,
each full of tabs with loaded web pages. Keeping these tabs ready to spring open at a moment's notice
requires extra memory. Yet another issue might be that a process has frozen or continues to run after an
application has closed.</p>
-
-<p>You can try to identify these resource-heavy processes in the <gui>Processes</gui> tab of <app>System
Monitor</app>. Using the buttons across the top of the process list, you can sort by <gui>% CPU</gui> or
<gui>Memory</gui> to identify the worst offenders. To toggle between ascending and descending sorting, click
the button again. If you find a process which seems to be using a lot of CPU or memory, you can right click
on it to bring up a menu which allows you to end it.</p>
+ <p>If the CPU usage is around 100%, this means that your computer is trying to do more work than it has
the capacity for. This is usually OK, but it means that programs may slow down a little. Computers tend to
use close to 100% of the CPU when they are doing computationally-intensive things like running games.</p>
-<note><p>The right-click menu for a process contains <gui>Stop Process</gui>, <gui>End Process</gui>, and
<gui>Kill Process</gui>. <gui>Stop Process</gui> means to pause the process temporarily. It can be resumed
with <gui>Continue Process</gui>. <gui>End Process</gui> tries to end the process as the programmer intended,
using the built in "quit" or "exit" function. <gui>Kill Process</gui> forces the process to close
immediately, and should be used only if <gui>End Process</gui> does not work.</p></note>
+ <p>If the processor is running at 100% for a long time, this could make your computer annoyingly slow. In
this case, you should <link xref="process-identify-hog">find out which program is using up so much CPU
time</link>.</p>
+ <p>If the memory usage is close to 100%, this can slow things down a lot. This is because the computer
will then try to use your hard disk as a temporary memory store, called <link xref="mem-swap">swap
memory</link>. Hard disks are much slower than the system memory.</p>
+
+ <p>You can try to free up some system memory by closing some programs. If things get too slow, try
restarting the computer.</p>
+
+ <note>
+ <p>The memory shown in the <gui>Resources</gui> tab is <em>system memory</em> (also called RAM). This is
used to hold programs temporarily, while they are running on the computer. This is not the same as a hard
disk or other kinds of memory, which are used to store files and programs more permanently.</p>
+ </note>
</page>
diff --git a/help/C/cpu-multicore.page b/help/C/cpu-multicore.page
index 4910140..dee77e0 100644
--- a/help/C/cpu-multicore.page
+++ b/help/C/cpu-multicore.page
@@ -2,32 +2,26 @@
type="topic" style="task"
id="cpu-multicore">
<info>
- <revision version="0.1" date="2011-08-19" status="review"/>
+ <revision version="0.1" date="2014-01-28" status="review"/>
<link type="guide" xref="index" group="cpu" />
-
+
+ <include href="legal.xml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"/>
+
<credit type="author copyright">
<name>Phil Bull</name>
<email>philbull gmail com</email>
- <years>2011</years>
- </credit>
- <credit type="author copyright">
- <name>Kelly Sinnott</name>
- <email>ksinnott5ht gmail com</email>
- <years>2011</years>
+ <years>2014</years>
</credit>
- <desc>Some computers have several CPUs (processors). This allows them to run more applications at the
same time.</desc>
+
+ <desc>Computers with more processors find it easier to run many programs at the same time.</desc>
</info>
- <title>Why do I have more than one CPU?</title>
+ <title>Why do I have more than one processor?</title>
- <comment>
- <cite date="2011-06-18" href="mailto:philbull gmail com">Phil Bull</cite>
- <p>Explain why more than one CPU might be shown in the Resources tab. (Multi-core system.) Explain the
implications of having multiple cores - the computer can do more simultaneously, but individual processes
won't generally run faster. Don't go into too much technical detail.</p>
-</comment>
-<comment>
- <cite date="2011-07-12" href="mailto:ksinnott5ht gmail com">Kelly Sinnott</cite>
- <p>I've included a pretty concise paragraph on this in cpu-check.page; I'm not sure if it should be
moved here, copied here, or what...probably what.</p>
- </comment>
-<p>Some processors are actually composed of multiple independent processors in one component. These are
referred to as <em>multi-core</em> processors. Multi-core CPUs allow an increase in overall performance
otherwise limited by physical constraints on a single core. However, a single process or thread is limited to
a single core. Because of this, a single demanding, non-threaded process can dominate a core, failing to take
advantage of the full CPU.</p>
+ <p>Many computers have more than one processor (CPU). These are sometimes referred to as multi-core
systems.</p>
+
+ <p>The workload of running all of the programs on your computer is shared between the processors. The more
processors you have, the more the work can be shared out. This reduces the load on each processor, which can
help make the computer run faster.</p>
+
+ <p>The computer automatically decides how best to share the work between processors; you don't need to do
this yourself.</p>
</page>
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