smcSystemDemandNow

Warning

This daemon is designed specifically for the T6020 APL1113 A2779 laptop running macOS with Apple Silicon. SMC keys and IOKit interfaces are Apple-proprietary and may not work on other hardware. Use at your own risk — it's just a humble attempt to talk to your Mac's SMC, not a magic bullet.

Created by: Albert Starfield Wahyu Suryo Samudro

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What Is This?

This is a small, ordinary macOS daemon that tries its best to communicate with your Mac's System Management Controller (SMC). It reads temperature sensors, monitors power telemetry, and adjusts fan speeds.

Think of it as a well-meaning little butler who lives inside your Mac, gently nudging the thermostat and occasionally whispering to the fans. It's not perfect, but it tries.

Features

• Fan Control — Reads and writes fan target speeds, modes, and feedback loops via SMC keys (F0Tg, F1Tg, F0Md, F1Md, etc.)
• Turbo Mode — Toggles high-performance mode by setting aPMX and adjusting power limits via mTPL
• Power Telemetry — Monitors SoC power draw (PHPC, PMVC, PPSC), battery discharge rate (PDBR), and package power budget (PHPB)
• Thermal Monitoring — Reads CPU/GPU temperatures and adjusts fan curves accordingly
• ML Thermal Prediction — Python-based CoreML model that tries to forecast thermal behavior for pre-cooling activation
• Realtime Scheduling — Uses macOS audio workgroup joining and realtime thread configuration for timing
• Self-Healing — Automatically restarts on crash via launchd KeepAlive

Why Does This Exist?

We live in an era of instant gratification — slowdowns aren't allowed. This daemon exists to push your machine to run as fast as it can, then throttle down when it's applicable. No waiting, no lag, just maximum performance when you need it and sensible cooling when you don't.

Architecture

smcSystemDemandNow/
├── smc_daemon/              # The Ada/SPARK daemon
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── smc_daemon.adb   # Main entry point & event loop
│   │   ├── smc_io.ads       # SMC IOKit bindings (C import)
│   │   ├── smc_math.adb     # Thermal math & fan curve calculations
│   │   ├── smc_files.adb    # Data persistence
│   │   ├── smc_realtime.ads # Audio workgroup & realtime scheduling
│   │   ├── smc_thresholds   # Safety thresholds & limits
│   │   └── smc_helper.c     # Low-level SMC access via IOKit
│   ├── python/              # ML training & inference
│   └── start.sh             # Bootstrap script (build + run)
├── restart_service.sh       # Launchd service manager
└── com.TwilightMigratory.smcSystemDemandNow.plist

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• macOS with Apple Silicon (specifically tested on T6020 APL1113 A2779)
• Alire (Ada package manager): brew install alire
• GNAT compiler (via Alire toolchain)
• Xcode Command Line Tools

Build & Run

# Clone and enter
cd /usr/local/smcSystemDemandNow

# Start the daemon (builds automatically if source changed)
sudo smc_daemon/start.sh

As a LaunchD Service

# Install and start as a system daemon
sudo restart_service.sh

Test Suite

# Run the full quality approval suite
cd smc_daemon
./TestSuite.sh --level=4

SMC Keys Reference

Key	Type	Purpose
F0Tg/F1Tg	ui16	Fan target speed (RPM)
F0Md/F1Md	ui8	Fan mode (0=auto, 1=forced)
aPMX	ui32	Active Performance Mode Extension (1= turbo ON)
mTPL	si32	Max Turbo Power Limit (0xffffffff=unlimited)
PHPC	flt	Package High Power Current (amps)
PDBR	flt	Power Device Battery Rate (watts)

Development

Building

cd smc_daemon
alr build

Formal Verification

alr exec -- gnatprove -P smc_daemon.gpr --level=4 --report=fail

Running Tests

alr test

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License

Licensed under the Hippocratic License 3.0 — use this software, but don't be evil with it.