# thermal-engine high CPU utilization

Source: https://forum.modalai.com/topic/734/thermal-engine-high-cpu-utilization
Category: Flight Core and Legacy VOXL (https://forum.modalai.com/category/9/flight-core-and-legacy-voxl)
Tags: voxl
Posted: 2022-02-10 20:13:57 UTC by wilkinsaf
Replies: 8 · Views: 1370

## wilkinsaf · 2022-02-10 20:13:57 UTC

I am consistently seeing an application called thermal-engine with high CPU utilization in "top"
![e0ab6cc5-9ea9-43ca-9046-229f206c10ab-image.png](https://forum.modalai.com/assets/uploads/files/1644523673940-e0ab6cc5-9ea9-43ca-9046-229f206c10ab-image.png) 

It appears that this is an android service for the Qualcomm chip. I am guessing we will just have to live with the higher CPU utilization. And, that is the price to pay for making sure we don't blow up the CPU? Or, is this CPU utilization higher than normal for thermal-manager

## Reply by Chad Sweet (ModalAI staff) · 2022-02-10 20:50:33 UTC

Hi @wilkinsaf , use voxl-inspect-cpu to measure its usage. It is not consuming much CPU. It is controlling the frequency scaling on the SoC. Top does not take frequency scaling into account. It is likely the CPUs are running at low frequency at such a low load, elevating the relative percentage of usage. voxl-inspect-cpu takes the frequency scaling into account

See this page [here](https://docs.modalai.com/thermal-and-performance/)

## Reply by wilkinsaf · 2022-02-10 21:41:46 UTC (in reply to Chad Sweet)

@Chad-Sweet 

Gotcha. The one thing I was trying to access was which program was using the most CPU. voxl-inspect-services shows cpu usage of services that start with "voxl*" but I wanted to see if there was any other internal programs taking up bandwidth. 

I will take into account top does not include frequency scaling.

Thanks!

## Reply by Chad Sweet (ModalAI staff) · 2022-02-10 21:42:53 UTC

I was referring to voxl-inspect-cpu, not voxl-inspect-services :-)

But, I think I see your point. That doesn't include thermal-engine

## Reply by Chad Sweet (ModalAI staff) · 2022-02-10 21:43:57 UTC

We should add an option for all processes

## Reply by wilkinsaf · 2022-02-10 21:47:04 UTC (in reply to Chad Sweet)

@Chad-Sweet Right, I saw that I could see cpu percentage utilization with voxl-inspect-cpu, but I wanted to see each programs %cpu utilization. 

Do you think an option for all processes should go in voxl-inspect-cpu? Maybe with a "-a" flag?

## Reply by Chad Sweet (ModalAI staff) · 2022-02-10 21:49:26 UTC

@Alex-Gardner any thoughts on where that option should go?

## Reply by Chad Sweet (ModalAI staff) · 2022-02-10 22:33:45 UTC

Looks like [voxl-inspect-services](https://gitlab.com/voxl-public/modal-pipe-architecture/voxl-mpa-tools/-/blob/master/bin/voxl-inspect-services) just greps top, so it does not include the scaling corrections

so, voxl-inspect-cpu is probably the best spot to do. It requires more coding though to break out the per-process usage stats (they are there though in the file system)

## Reply by wilkinsaf · 2022-02-11 01:47:23 UTC (in reply to Chad Sweet)

@Chad-Sweet Right on. I will take a look at it. See what I can do