FOSSPicks

CoreFreq

This wouldn't be FOSSPicks if I didn't look at a performance monitoring tool or two, and this one is rather good. CoreFreq is a CPU performance monitoring tool that specifically targets relatively modern hardware. Your CPU needs to be running a 64-bit operating system and be either an Intel Atom, Core 2, Nehalem, Sandy Bridge, or better. AMD users just need a CPU from the 0Fh family (AMD K8 Hammer) and later. The reason for these requirements is that CoreFreq promises a high degree of precision and is specifically written to monitor modern CPU technologies such as SpeedStep (EIST), Turbo Boost, Hyper-Threading (HTT), and Base Clock. It can also deliver high levels of detail about the code running through your CPU, including the number of instructions per cycle or second, IPS, IPC, or CPI, C-states, thermal monitoring, and the output from various performance counters.

This level of CPU intrusion comes at a cost, and that's mainly paid via the authority required by CoreFreq to run. Not only does it need its own daemon with root credentials, it also needs its own kernel module. This is understandable considering the way the monitor works, but it's worth considering if you're running the monitor on a critical machine. With everything built, installed, and running, the default view looks much like the monitor in htop. Each core gets its own histogram, alongside a table that lists many of the statuses mentioned previously. A menu system can also be used to switch between various modes and display various parameters, and there's a primitive display manager for showing details such as CPU topology and hardware info above the monitor. Additional details can also be viewed directly with additional command-line arguments, making CoreFreq one of the most comprehensive tools for monitoring your CPU that you can install.

Project Website

https://github.com/cyring/CoreFreq

CoreFreq displays an unparalleled amount of information about your CPU, as well as the way it's being used by your applications and operating system.

Granular audio synthesizer

Fragment

Fitting into the niche audio category for this month is Fragment, a "collaborative cross-platform audiovisual live coding environment with pixels based real-time image-synth approach to sound synthesis." To make sense, that sentence really needs to be broken apart and the words looked at individually, but this confusion of words is itself an accurate reflection of the complexity and capabilities of the software. Essentially, Fragment makes sounds, but those sounds are programmed rather than dialed in, and you can share the programming task in real time with collaborators, editing the text as you perform. The audio is generated from pixel data produced by your code, which is pushed through OpenGL Shading Language (GLSL). It's audio/visual because inputs can be images, videos, and sound, essentially shaders in GLSL, and it's granular because the output is generated by taking small samples of those various inputs, processing them, and outputting them again as a cloud of sounds mixed together. Fragment is as complicated as it sounds and especially difficult to get your head around with the little supporting documentation or examples provided. But Fragment "sounds" fantastic, from ethereal pads and ambient abstracted textures to metallic percussion and additive sine waves.

Fragment is slightly unusual in that, although it does run locally, it's built with various web technologies and is accessed via a browser like Chromium or Firefox. You run the code and send notes to the synth using either OSC or MIDI, although Firefox doesn't yet support MIDI. You can then edit and add to the code in real time, and the sound will change. This is the collaborative part, and you can play around with the synth online without having to install it. Load up some images, add them as inputs in the code, and play with the processing.

Project Website

https://www.fsynth.com/

Use the power of your GPU to generate weird and wonderful sounds.

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