1 files changed, 9 insertions, 2 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt b/Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt
index 4287696f18dd..94ce0d20253d 100644
--- a/Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt
+++ b/Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt
@@ -695,8 +695,15 @@ and is between 256 and 4096 characters. It is defined in the file
         idebus=         [HW] (E)IDE subsystem - VLB/PCI bus speed
                         See Documentation/ide.txt.
 
-        idle=           [HW]
-                        Format: idle=poll or idle=halt
+        idle=           [X86]
+                        Format: idle=poll or idle=mwait
+                        Poll forces a polling idle loop that can slightly improves the performance
+                        of waking up a idle CPU, but will use a lot of power and make the system
+                        run hot. Not recommended.
+                        idle=mwait. On systems which support MONITOR/MWAIT but the kernel chose
+                        to not use it because it doesn't save as much power as a normal idle
+                        loop use the MONITOR/MWAIT idle loop anyways. Performance should be the same
+                        as idle=poll.
 
         ignore_loglevel [KNL]
                         Ignore loglevel setting - this will print /all/