I have a Thinkpad T61. Reading from /proc/acpi/ibm/thermal works fine but generates too many interrupts - reading the file once per 5 seconds generates 20 interrupts waking up the CPU, wasting battery life and outputting extra heat very strictly speaking, although many would not care. Admittedly reading sensor data through /sys/class/hwmon/*/device/*_input files ALSO interrupts the CPU, albeit not so often. The /proc interface is also deprecated they say. In light of the latter, the multitude of ways to obtain readings, and the fact that I am trying to find battery-life optimal way to read the sensors continually (most hardware monitors do so), i was wondering: What interface is most reliable, generic and least resource intensive for obtaining sensor readings in Linux (2.6.27.11)? The reason I am asking is that it seems both documentation of thinkpad-acpi and libsensors mentions similiar facts, and touches the same subjects, almost hinting that the development of these two modules shares a lot of knowledge. Both have their own separate ways to obtain sensor readings, and both prefer this or that. Also, I have no knowledge of internal workings of libsensors, and whether it in fact USES thinkpad-acpi or generic acpi driver or something else to do its job. I just want to get a piece of advice concerning the best method, and also one that is reliable. I know thinkpad-acpi gets data per ACPI specs, and that libsensors does chip-specific stuff, but still that does not give me confidence using either over the other... -amn.
