Hi Tim,

> Some of the steps we have found to help include:
> 
> 0. Employ large pages in Linux and in your java option.

Did that. We use 4 JVMs with ~3200M hugepages each, and each bound to 2
cores of one CPU.

> 1. Employ a tickless kernel, probably a kernel close to 2.6.24.

Yes, we are currently running 2.6.24-fc9 (while we are at it: can
someone tell me if Rawhide packages are archived somewhere? When I
installed that kernel I forgot to download the sources and the next time
I checked the rawhide kernel was already at 2.6.25-rc1)

> 2. Turn on the ondemand governor (set
> /sys/devices/system/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_governor to
> ondemand).

Yes, it's running. It seems that it is switching back less aggressively
than Windows, though. Our BIOS only defines to frequencies (highest,
2.83GHz  and lowest, 2.00GHz). In the intermediate load levels (50%,
say), the CPUs are about 70-80% in the high freq state.

> 3. Trun on the menu idle governor (set
> /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpuidle_governor_ro to menu)

I am ~95% sure that it was running. Need to re-check though.

> 4. Turning on the power aware scheduler  (set
> /sys/devices/system/cpu/sched_mc_power_savings to 1)

In order to achieve high performance in SPECpower, the JVMs must be
bound to CPU cores. AFAICS, this wouldn't work well with
sched_mc_power_savings=1 (because the scheduler can't move the jobs away
from a package).

> 5. Use a larger sampling (like 1000000) versus the default value of 2000
> in /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/ondemand/sampling_rate.  For
> SPECpower workload, the load level is very steady, so it does not pay to
> shift gear to a high cpu frequency too quickly.

I am not sure if that complies with the SPECPower rules. Anyway, it's
worth a a try.

> 6. Employ idle microstate accounting (not yet available in distribution
> kernel)
> 
> Also check the BIOS setting to make sure things like speedstep and fan
> speed
> accoustic is set properly.

These things were already optimized to our best knowledge.The power
consumption in the idle state is actually quite good

Martin

-- 
Martin Wilck
PRIMERGY System Software Engineer
FSC IP ESP DE6

Fujitsu Siemens Computers GmbH
Heinz-Nixdorf-Ring 1
33106 Paderborn
Germany

Tel:                    ++49 5251 8 15113
Fax:                    ++49 5251 8 20209
Email:                  mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Internet:               http://www.fujitsu-siemens.com
Company Details:        http://www.fujitsu-siemens.com/imprint.html

_______________________________________________
Discuss mailing list
[email protected]
http://mail.lesswatts.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Reply via email to