What does the confidence value mean on the output of sensors-detect?

Sample output of sensors-detect taken from here:

Driver `coretemp':
  * Chip `Intel digital thermal sensor' (confidence: 9)

Driver `lm90':
  * Bus `SMBus nForce2 adapter at 4d00'
    Busdriver `i2c_nforce2', I2C address 0x4c
    Chip `Winbond W83L771AWG/ASG' (confidence: 6)

What does this confidence value mean? If the confidence value is 6, does this mean the confidence interval is +/- 6°C?

Just curious as to how accurate the readings from sensors are. For me at least, these values tend to jump around a lot, and I was wondering if that reflects the actual fluctuating temperature of my CPU, or if it's just random noise.

Jamie

Posted 2014-12-14T20:46:32.960

Reputation: 125

confidence is how certain it is that the device is what it detected. 9 means it 99% sure it is that device and 1 is a wild guess. – cybernard – 2014-12-15T00:26:46.767

Ahh, so it means the confidence that it got the device name / details right, not the confidence of the temperature readings themselves. If you turn this into an answer I'll accept it. – Jamie – 2014-12-16T20:59:13.477

What does the confidence value mean on the output of sensors-detect?

Answers