Patent application number | Description | Published |
20080301473 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR HYPERVISOR BASED POWER MANAGEMENT - A method of hypervisor based power management, includes: allocating resources to a plurality of partitions defined within a virtual machine environment; monitoring performance of the plurality of partitions with respect to a service level agreement (SLA); tracking power consumption in the plurality of partitions; scaling power consumption rates of the plurality of partitions based on the allocated resources, wherein the power consumption rate of physical resources is scaled by adjusting resource allocations to each partition; identifying partitions that are sources of excessive power consumption based on the SLA; and adjusting the allocation of resources based on the power consumption of the plurality of partitions, the performance of the plurality of partitions, and the SLA. | 12-04-2008 |
20080307238 | System for Unified Management of Power, Performance, and Thermals in Computer Systems - A system is provided for unified management of power, performance, and thermals in computer systems. This system incorporates elements to effectively address all aspects of managing computing systems in an integrated manner, instead of independently. The system employs an infrastructure for real-time measurements feedback, an infrastructure for regulating system activity, component operating levels, and environmental control, a dedicated control structure for guaranteed response/preemptive action, and interaction and integration components. The system provides interfaces for user-level interaction. The system also employs methods to address power/thermal concerns at multiple timescales. In addition, the system improves efficiency by adopting an integrated approach, rather than treating different aspects of the power/thermal problem as individual issues to be addressed in a piecemeal fashion. | 12-11-2008 |
20090327764 | Managing Power Consumption Of A Computer - Methods, computers, and products for managing power consumption of a computer, the computer including a computer processor and managing power consumption of a computer includes: dynamically during operation of the computer, setting, by an in-band power manager in dependence upon performance metrics of the computer processor, a current performance state (‘p-state’) of the computer processor; and providing, by the in-band power manager to an out-of-band power manager, the current p-state of the computer processor. | 12-31-2009 |
20090327765 | Managing Power Consumption Of A Computer - Methods and products for managing power consumption of a computer and computers for which power consumption is managed. The computer includes the computer including a computer processor and embodiments of the present invention include providing, by an in-band power manger to an out-of-band power manager, a proposed performance state (‘p-state’) for the computer processor; determining, by the out-of-band power manager, in dependence upon a power setpoint and currently-measured operating metrics of the computer processor, whether to approve the proposed p-state; and if the out-of-band power manager approves the proposed p-state, setting operating parameters of the computer processor according to the approved p-state. | 12-31-2009 |
20100037038 | Dynamic Core Pool Management - Embodiments that dynamically manage core pools are disclosed. Various embodiments involve measuring the amount of a computational load on a computing device. One way of measuring the load may consist of executing a number of instructions, in a unit of time, with numerous cores of the computing device. These embodiments may compare the number of instructions executed with specific thresholds. Depending on whether the number of instructions is higher or lower than the thresholds, the computing devices may respond by activating and deactivating cores of the computing devices. By limiting execution of instructions of the computing device to a smaller number of cores and switching one or more cores to a lower power state, the devices may conserve power. | 02-11-2010 |
20100070787 | POWER CAP LOWER BOUND EXPLORATION IN A SERVER ENVIRONMENT - Disclosed is a computer implemented method, computer program product, and apparatus for determining a safe lower bound for a commonly powered data processing system. A power management module operates the data processing system using at least one nominal operating parameter during an exploration periodicity, with the at least one nominal operating parameter being clock speed. The power management module determines whether a calibration period is occurring. The power management module calibrates the data processing system up to a measurement interval duration expiration. The power management module may repeat operating the data processing system using the at least one nominal operating parameter. | 03-18-2010 |
20100115343 | METHOD FOR AUTOMATED PROCESSOR POWER MANAGEMENT FOR BETTER ENERGY-EFFICIENCY - Semiconductor device circuits and methods are provided for adjusting core processor performance and energy-efficiency based on usage metrics. Metric detection, performance state selection, and adjustment are done in digital logic hardware without intervening input from system software or firmware, thus greatly speeding the processor performance adjustment. Mapping usage and state information to desired processor power-performance states is also provided in circuitry rather than firmware or power control software. The mapping values may be programmable software or firmware, but detection, selection, and adjustment occur automatically in hardware without intervening input from firmware or software. | 05-06-2010 |
20100146316 | Optimizing Power Consumption by Tracking How Program Runtime Performance Metrics Respond to Changes in Operating Frequency - A method, system, and computer program product for optimizing power consumption of an executing processor executing. The method includes determining a first sensitivity relationship (SR) based on a first and a second performance metric value (PMV) measured at a first and second operating frequency (OF), respectively. The first SR predicts workload performance over a range of OFs. A third OF is determined based on the first SR and a specified workload performance floor. A third PMV is measured by executing the processor operating at the third OF. A second SR based on the second and third PMVs is then determined. The first and second SRs are logically combined to generate a third SR. Based on the third SR, a fourth OF is outputted. | 06-10-2010 |
20100218029 | System and Method for Managing the Power-Performance Range of an Application - Semiconductor device circuits and methods are provided for adjusting core processor performance based on usage metrics. Metric detection and adjustment are performed in digital logic hardware guided by registers providing maximum and minimum frequency settings, without intervening input from system software or firmware, thus greatly speeding the processor performance adjustment. Power-performance drivers provide applications or the operating system ability to specify maximum and minimum frequency requirements. | 08-26-2010 |
20100268968 | MANAGING PROCESSOR POWER-PERFORMANCE STATES - Disclosed are systems, methods, and computer program products for managing power states in processors of a data processing system. In one embodiment, the invention is directed to a data processing system having dynamically configurable power-performance states (“pstates”). The data processing system includes a processor configured to operate at multiple states of frequency and voltage. The data processing system also has a power manager module configured to monitor operation of the data processing system. The data processing system further includes a pstates table having a plurality of pstate definitions, wherein each pstate definition includes a voltage value, a frequency value, and at least one unique pointer that indicates a transition from a given pstate to a different pstate. The voltage value, frequency value, and unique pointer of a given pstate definition are configurable, during operation of the data processing system, by the power manager module in response to changes in the operating parameters of the data processing system. | 10-21-2010 |
20100332872 | Priority-Based Power Capping in Data Processing Systems - A mechanism is provided for priority-based power capping. A power management controller identifies a set of priorities for a set of partitions of the data processing system. The power management controller determines whether a measured power of the data processing system exceeds a power cap for the data processing system. Responsive to the measured power exceeding the power cap, the power management controller sends a set of commands to a set of component actuators to adjust one or more of a set of operation parameters for a set of components associated with the set of partitions using the set of priorities. The set of component actuators adjust the one or more of the set of operational parameters associated with the set of component in order to reduce a power consumption of the data processing system. | 12-30-2010 |
20110113270 | Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS) Control for Simultaneous Multi-Threading (SMT) Processors - A mechanism is provided for controlling operational parameters associated with a plurality of processors. A control system in the data processing system determines a utilization slack value of the data processing system. The utilization slack value is determined using one or more active core count values and one or more slack core count values. The control system computes a new utilization metric to be a difference between a full utilization value and the utilization slack value. The control system determines whether the new utilization metric is below a predetermined utilization threshold. Responsive to the new utilization metric being below the predetermined utilization threshold, the control system decreases a frequency of the plurality of processors. | 05-12-2011 |
20110145555 | Controlling Power Management Policies on a Per Partition Basis in a Virtualized Environment - A mechanism is provided for controlling power management policies on a per logical partition basis. A power management mechanism in a data processing system receives a notification that the logical partition has been generated, a set of processing units associated with the logical partition, and a current power management policy to be implemented for the logical partition. The power management mechanism adds the logical partition and the set of processing units to a list of logical partitions. The power management mechanism initializes the set of processing units based on settings for the set of processing units in the current power management policy. The power management mechanism notifies a virtualization mechanism that the set of processing units are running at a specified performance level in order for the logical partition to start executing tasks on the set of processing units. | 06-16-2011 |
20110154083 | Processor and Memory Folding for Energy Management - A method, system and computer-usable medium are disclosed for managing power consumption in information processing systems. Processing resources are successively folded, allowing them to be placed into deeper and deeper power saving states while maintaining the ability to respond to new processing loads without exposing the latency of the deeper power saving states as they are unfolded. Before a deeper power saving state can be used, there must be sufficient processing resources in the prior power saving state to mask the latency of bringing a processing resource out of the deeper power saving state. | 06-23-2011 |
20110154322 | Preserving a Dedicated Temporary Allocation Virtualization Function in a Power Management Environment - A mechanism is provided for temporarily allocating dedicated processors to a shared processor pool. A virtual machine monitor determines whether a temporary allocation associated with an identified dedicated processor is long-term or short-term. Responsive to the temporary allocation being long-term, the virtual machine monitor determines whether an operating frequency of the identified dedicated processor is within a predetermined threshold of an operating frequency of one or more operating systems utilizing the shared processor pool. Responsive to the operating frequency of the identified dedicated processor failing to be within the predetermined threshold, the virtual machine monitor either increases or decreases the frequency of the identified dedicated processor to be within the predetermined threshold of the operating frequency of the one or more operating systems utilizing the shared processor pool and temporarily allocates the identified dedicated processor to the shared processor pool. | 06-23-2011 |
20110154323 | Controlling Depth and Latency of Exit of a Virtual Processor's Idle State in a Power Management Environment - A mechanism is provided in a logically partitioned data processing system for controlling depth and latency of exit of a virtual processor's idle state. A virtualization layer generates a cede latency setting information (CLSI) data. Responsive to booting a logical partition, the virtualization layer communicates the CLSI data to an operating system (OS) of the logical partition. The OS determines, based on the CLSI data, a particular idle state of a virtual processor under a control of the OS. Responsive to the OS calling the virtualization layer, the OS communicates the particular idle state of the virtual processor to the virtualization layer for assigning the particular idle state and wake-up characteristics to the virtual processor. | 06-23-2011 |
20110154348 | METHOD OF EXPLOITING SPARE PROCESSORS TO REDUCE ENERGY CONSUMPTION - A method, system, and computer program product for reducing power and energy consumption in a server system with multiple processor cores is disclosed. The system may include an operating system for scheduling user workloads among a processor pool. The processor pool may include active licensed processor cores and inactive unlicensed processor cores. The method and computer program product may reduce power and energy consumption by including steps and sets of instructions activating spare cores and adjusting the operating frequency of processor cores, including the newly activated spare cores to provide equivalent computing resources as the original licensed cores operating at a specified clock frequency. | 06-23-2011 |
20110296212 | Optimizing Energy Consumption and Application Performance in a Multi-Core Multi-Threaded Processor System - A mechanism is provided for scheduling application tasks. A scheduler receives a task that identifies a desired frequency and a desired maximum number of competing hardware threads. The scheduler determines whether a user preference designates either maximization of performance or minimization of energy consumption. Responsive to the user preference designating the performance, the scheduler determines whether there is an idle processor core in a plurality of processor cores available. Responsive to no idle processor being available, the scheduler identifies a subset of processor cores having a smallest load coefficient. From the subset of processor cores, the scheduler determines whether there is at least one processor core that matches desired parameters of the task. Responsive to at least one processor core matching the desired parameters of the task, the scheduler assigns the task to one of the at least one processor core that matches the desired parameters. | 12-01-2011 |
20110320840 | Transparently Increasing Power Savings in a Power Management Environment - A mechanism is provided for transparently consolidating resources of logical partitions. Responsive to the existence of the non-folded resource on an originating resource chip, the virtualization mechanism determines whether there is a destination resource chip to either exchange operations of the non-folded resource with a folded resource on the destination chip or migrate operations of the non-folded resource to a non-folded resource on the destination chip. Responsive to the existence of the folded resource on the destination resource chip, the virtualization mechanism transparently exchanges the operations of the non-folded resource from the originating resource chip to the folded resource on the destination resource chip, where the folded resource remains folded on the originating resource chip after the exchange. Responsive to the absence of another non-folded resource on the originating resource chip, the vitalization mechanism places the originating resource chip into a deeper power saving mode. | 12-29-2011 |
20120096293 | Directed Resource Folding for Power Management - A mechanism is provided for directed resource folding for power management. The mechanism receives a set of static platform characteristics and a set of dynamic platform characteristics for a set of resources associated with the data processing system thereby forming characteristic information. The mechanism determines whether one or more conditions have been met for each resource in the set of resources using the characteristic information. Responsive to the one or more conditions being met, the mechanism performs a resource optimization to determine at least one of a first subset of resources in the set of resources to keep active and a second subset of resources in the set of resources to dynamically fold. Based on the resource optimization, the mechanism performs either a virtual resource optimization to optimally schedule the first subset of resources or a physical resource optimization to dynamically fold the second subset of resources. | 04-19-2012 |
20120116599 | Allocation of Energy Budgets to Individual Partitions - A mechanism is provided for allocating energy budgets to a plurality of logical partitions. An overall energy budget for the data processing system and a total of a set of requested initial energy budgets for the plurality of partitions are determined. A determination is made as to whether the total of the set of requested initial energy budgets for the plurality of partitions is greater than the overall energy budget for the data processing system. Responsive to the total of the set of requested initial energy budgets exceeding the overall energy budget, an initial energy budget is allocated to each partition in the plurality of partitions based on at least one of priority or proportionality of each partition in the plurality of partitions such that a total of the initial energy budgets for the plurality of partitions does not exceed the overall energy budget of the data processing system. | 05-10-2012 |
20120117390 | Energy Allocation to Groups of Virtual Machines - A method, data processing system, and computer program product for managing energy. A processor unit identifies a plurality of groups of virtual machines in a computer system. The processor unit allocates the energy in the computer system to the plurality of groups of virtual machines based on a policy. | 05-10-2012 |
20120117403 | POWER MANAGEMENT FOR PROCESSING CAPACITY UPGRADE ON DEMAND - A method, computer program product, and apparatus for managing power in a data processing system are presented. A core is activated in the data processing system and configured to operate at a frequency in response to receiving a request to increase a processing capacity of a set of resources in the data processing system. A determination whether a use of power resulting from activating the core configured to operate at the frequency meets a policy for the use of the power in the data processing system is made. A set of parameters associated with devices in the set of resources are adjusted to meet the policy for the use of power in the data processing system in response to a determination that the use of power does not meet the policy. A determination whether a number of operations performed per unit of time by a set of cores associated with the set of resources increased after activating the core is made. An indication that the request to increase the processing capacity of the set of resources is unavailable is made in response to a determination that the number of operations performed per unit of time by the set of cores associated with the set of resources has not increased. | 05-10-2012 |
20120144218 | Transferring Power and Speed from a Lock Requester to a Lock Holder on a System with Multiple Processors - Power is allocated between processors in a multiprocessor system. A request to acquire a lock is received from a first thread executing on a first processor. Responsive to receiving the request to acquire a lock, determination is made as to whether a second thread has acquired the lock. Responsive to determining that the second thread has acquired the lock, an original frequency of the first thread executing on the first processor and an operating frequency of the second thread executing on the second processor is identified. The operating frequency of the second thread executing on the second processor is then altered based on the original frequency of the first thread executing on the first processor. When the second thread releases the lock, the spinning thread with the highest original frequency acquires the lock. | 06-07-2012 |
20120173906 | Optimizing Energy Consumption and Application Performance in a Multi-Core Multi-Threaded Processor System - A mechanism is provided for scheduling application tasks. A scheduler receives a task that identifies a desired frequency and a desired maximum number of competing hardware threads. The scheduler determines whether a user preference designates either maximization of performance or minimization of energy consumption. Responsive to the user preference designating the performance, the scheduler determines whether there is an idle processor core in a plurality of processor cores available. Responsive to no idle processor being available, the scheduler identifies a subset of processor cores having a smallest load coefficient. From the subset of processor cores, the scheduler determines whether there is at least one processor core that matches desired parameters of the task. Responsive to at least one processor core matching the desired parameters of the task, the scheduler assigns the task to one of the at least one processor core that matches the desired parameters. | 07-05-2012 |
20120198247 | Energy Allocation to Groups of Virtual Machines - A method for managing energy. A processor unit identifies a plurality of groups of virtual machines in a computer system. The processor unit allocates the energy in the computer system to the plurality of groups of virtual machines based on a policy. | 08-02-2012 |
20120198452 | CONTROLLING DEPTH AND LATENCY OF EXIT OF A VIRTUAL PROCESSOR'S IDLE STATE IN A POWER MANAGEMENT ENVIRONMENT - A mechanism is provided in a logically partitioned data processing system for controlling depth and latency of exit of a virtual processor's idle state. A virtualization layer generates a cede latency setting information (CLSI) data. Responsive to booting a logical partition, the virtualization layer communicates the CLSI data to an operating system (OS) of the logical partition. The OS determines, based on the CLSI data, a particular idle state of a virtual processor under a control of the OS. Responsive to the OS calling the virtualization layer, the OS communicates the particular idle state of the virtual processor to the virtualization layer for assigning the particular idle state and wake-up characteristics to the virtual processor. | 08-02-2012 |
20120210152 | Transparently Increasing Power Savings in a Power Management Environment - A mechanism is provided for transparently consolidating resources of logical partitions. Responsive to the existence of the non-folded resource on an originating resource chip, the virtualization mechanism determines whether there is a destination resource chip to either exchange operations of the non-folded resource with a folded resource on the destination chip or migrate operations of the non-folded resource to a non-folded resource on the destination chip. Responsive to the existence of the folded resource on the destination resource chip, the virtualization mechanism transparently exchanges the operations of the non-folded resource from the originating resource chip to the folded resource on the destination resource chip, where the folded resource remains folded on the originating resource chip after the exchange. Responsive to the absence of another non-folded resource on the originating resource chip, the vitalization mechanism places the originating resource chip into a deeper power saving mode. | 08-16-2012 |
20120284540 | Managing Power Consumption Of A Computer - Methods, computers, and products for managing power consumption of a computer, the computer including a computer processor and managing power consumption of a computer includes: dynamically during operation of the computer, setting, by an in-band power manager in dependence upon performance metrics of the computer processor, a current performance state (‘p-state’) of the computer processor; and providing, by the in-band power manager to an out-of-band power manager, the current p-state of the computer processor. | 11-08-2012 |
20120324263 | Priority-Based Power Capping in Data Processing Systems - A mechanism is provided for priority-based power capping. A power management controller identifies a set of priorities for a set of partitions of the data processing system. The power management controller determines whether a measured power of the data processing system exceeds a power cap for the data processing system. Responsive to the measured power exceeding the power cap, the power management controller sends a set of commands to a set of component actuators to adjust one or more of a set of operation parameters for a set of components associated with the set of partitions using the set of priorities. The set of component actuators adjust the one or more of the set of operational parameters associated with the set of component in order to reduce a power consumption of the data processing system. | 12-20-2012 |
20120324264 | Priority-Based Power Capping in Data Processing Systems - A mechanism is provided for priority-based power capping. A power management controller identifies a set of priorities for a set of partitions of the data processing system. The power management controller determines whether a measured power of the data processing system exceeds a power cap for the data processing system. Responsive to the measured power exceeding the power cap, the power management controller sends a set of commands to a set of component actuators to adjust one or more of a set of operation parameters for a set of components associated with the set of partitions using the set of priorities. The set of component actuators adjust the one or more of the set of operational parameters associated with the set of component in order to reduce a power consumption of the data processing system. | 12-20-2012 |
20130282788 | File System Optimization by Log/Metadata Analysis - A mechanism is provided in a data processing system for optimization of a distributed file system by log data analysis. A name node in the distributed file system initiates a log analysis map/reduce job on one or more connected data nodes via a map/reduce processing framework in the distributed file system and receives result data resulting from the log analysis map/reduce job from the one or more connected data nodes via the map/reduce processing framework in the distributed file system. The name node performs analysis on the received result data and generates an optimization plan for the one or more connected data nodes based on results of the analysis. The name node initiates the optimization plan on the one or more connected data nodes via the map/reduce processing framework in the distributed file system. | 10-24-2013 |
20140136786 | ASYNCHRONOUS PERSISTENT STORES FOR TRANSACTIONS - A processor includes a processor core, a cache, and a tracker. The processor core is configured to execute persistent write instructions and receive notifications of completed persistent write instructions. The tracker is configured to track the completion state of a persistent write instruction. | 05-15-2014 |