site_archiver@lists.apple.com Delivered-To: darwin-dev@lists.apple.com "machdep.cpu.brand_string" (use sysctlbyname(), please). -- Terry _______________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored. Darwin-dev mailing list (Darwin-dev@lists.apple.com) Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/darwin-dev/site_archiver%40lists.appl... On May 14, 2008, at 8:28 PM, Mike wrote: Terry Lambert wrote: On May 14, 2008, at 7:28 PM, Mike wrote: Is there a way to get the description of the processor(s) using sysctl. I am interested in the specific processor name, not the family name. For example "Northwood", not "i386" or "x86". No. We care about the family and the capability bits, not the Intel marketing name for it. The first lets us grade binaries, and th second lets us write software that avoids attempting to use capabilities not present on a specific CPU. -- Terry I am not attempting to use this info to determine capabilities of the specific CPU. I need to write a system-profiler like feature and I need the name of the processor, not just the family. System Profiler provides the processor name, so there must be a way to get it. For example on the MacBook it reports: Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo Oh, you gave an example of "Northwood", which I don't expect you'll ever see. If you just want to report what system_profiler reports, the easiest way is to do what Philip Aker suggested, and invoke the command line version of system_profiler and read its output. If you are OK with less specificity, and insist that it be a sysctl, then: I expect you can get this same information from issuing the CPUID instruction various ways, which is how we fill out the capability bits. Remember that not checking the capability bits, and assuming that some marketing name means a feature is usable does not mean the feature is usable. For example, it's possible with a boot argument to disable Altivec on G4 and G5 based machines, and Intel CPUs have similar capabilities, so not looking at the capability bits means you might be trying to use some hardware feature that has been disabled for some reason (e.g. power management, etc.). This email sent to site_archiver@lists.apple.com