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Do you want to squeeze the maximum from you XScale based device? Overclock
your 400 MHz Pocket PC to 500 MHz and gain additional 20% performance boost?
Clock down the CPU to preserve battery power? Manually tweak the memory and
LCD multipliers, run your CPU in Turbo or Run mode, set the SDRAM latency, refresh
rate or refresh cycles? Get detailed information on your device, see the running
processes, threads, loaded DLLs? See the system databases and your power status?
Hack Master will do this for you. Hack Master will change the speed of your
CPU and minimize to tray. You can easily access all the settings from the tray
icon menu, or maximize the program and gain access to even more settings. Hack
Master will monitor device power offs and restore the speed you chose upon next
power on. New features include "Scale " option (Hack Master will monitor
the CPU load and automatically switch the CPU speed when more processing power
is needed, giving the best performance/battery life ratio possible and unlocking
the "scale" capabilities of your XScale processor), two more multipliers
allowing much more frequency combinations, Dell Axim and View Sonic support,
desktop installer, saving the settings in the registry, more control over the
favorites, safe-start option, minimize on start option, more supported frequencies,
user manual. 4 quick speeds, 4 frequently used speeds, favorite speeds, and
more than 50 other speed settings available by manipulating the manual multipliers.
The life of the Xscale processor has had mixed results. The power usage is
more refined when compared to the 206 processor. Yet the performance leaves
the power user shaking their head that real world use of the 400 Mhz Xscale
is a bitter pill in the performance department. The recent announcement from
Intel that the next Xscale processor will operate at the same speeds, but have
many 'tweaks' confirms both consumer and business desire for better performance.
If you already own one of the many Xscale machines on the market, take a deep
breath of relief. Pocket Hack Master provides a software solution for getting
the most out of your Xscale processor. Normally this type of manipulation is
left to the advanced users, but this program provides a quick and easy way to
ramp up power safely with pre selected options. If you want to aim for an even
higher processor speed ratio, all the manual settings are available. However,
this is ONLY recommended for those who know what they are doing. Setting the
wrong parameters will quickly render your Pocket PC in hard reset land.
| CPU |
Operation |
400 Mhz
|
472 Mhz
|
| ? |
Floating Point |
12.65
|
15.01
|
| ? |
Integer |
26.93
|
31.93
|
| Graphics |
(Bitmaps) |
|
|
| ? |
BitBlt |
25.17
|
30.98
|
| ? |
StretchBlt |
.79
|
.90
|
| ? |
(Filled) |
|
|
| ? |
Ellipse |
.51
|
.52
|
| ? |
Rectangle |
2.04
|
2.48
|
| ? |
Rounded Rect. |
.49
|
.50
|
| Memory |
? |
| ? |
Allocation |
11.13
|
13.21
|
| ? |
Fill |
.92
|
1.09
|
| ? |
Move |
.36
|
.43
|
| Text |
? |
2.87
|
3.77
|
| ? |
The above results are my before and after scores using VO Benchmark. The most
important result (for me) is the text rendering score, since the majority of
programs I use display a significant amount of text. While the gain in numerical
value is respectively small, the actual responsiveness of the processor at the
higher speed is noticeable. Screens refresh faster, and games don't slow down
as much.
There are several information screens provided in the program about battery
life, databases and processor events.
How you want Pocket Hack Master to behave is accessed on the Today screen.
If nothing is selected, the Xscale processor will revert to default settings
when power is turned off and then back on. Since nothing can be permanent, Pocket
Hack Master must be left running at all times in the background to gain any
performance tweaks.
Availability
Pocket Hack Master is available from PocketGear
for $9.99. |
