A performance-conserving approach for reducing peak power consumption in server systems

TLDR

Increasing component power consumption, denser systems, and performance growth amid technology scaling pose major challenges for powering and cooling server systems, primarily due to peak power consumption. The study proposes Power Shifting, a method to reduce peak power consumption in servers while minimizing performance impact. The approach uses workload‑guided dynamic power allocation, real‑time performance feedback, activity‑related power estimation, and a system power manager that continuously re‑budget power between processor and memory. Dynamic power allocation outperforms static budgeting, and the study evaluates various power‑shifting policies, identifies key system and workload factors, and proposes performance‑sensitive budget enforcement mechanisms that maintain reliability.

Abstract

The combination of increasing component power consumption, a desire for denser systems, and the required performance growth in the face of technology-scaling issues are posing enormous challenges for powering and cooling of server systems. The challenges are directly linked to the peak power consumption of servers.Our solution, Power Shifting, reduces the peak power consumption of servers minimizing the impact on performance. We reduce peak power consumption by using workload-guided dynamic allocation of power among components incorporating real-time performance feedback, activity-related power estimation techniques, and performance-sensitive activity-regulation mechanisms to enforce power budgets.We apply our techniques to a computer system with a single processor and memory. Power shifting adds a system power manager with a dynamic, global view of the system's power consumption to continuously re-budget the available power amongst the two components. Our contributions include:• Demonstration of the greater effectiveness of dynamic power allocation over static budgeting,• Evaluation of different power shifting policies,• Analysis of system and workload factors critical to successful power shifting, and• Proposal of performance-sensitive power budget enforcement mechanisms that ensure system reliability.