Power Measurements for Compute Nodes: Improving Sampling Rates, Granularity and Accuracy

Research output: Contribution to book/Conference proceedings/Anthology/ReportConference contributionContributedpeer-review

Abstract

Energy efficiency is a key optimization goal for software and hardware in the High Performance Computing (HPC) domain. This necessitates sophisticated power measurement capabilities that are characterized by the key criteria (i) high sampling rates, (ii) measurement of individual components, (iii) well-defined accuracy, and (iv) high scalability. In this paper, we tackle the first three of these goals and describe the instrumentation of two high-end compute nodes with three different current measurement techniques: (i) Hall effect sensors, (ii) measuring shunts in extension cables and riser cards, and (iii) tapping into the voltage regulators. The resulting measurement data for components such as sockets, PCIe cards, and DRAM DIMMs is digitized at sampling rates from 7 kSa/s up to 500 kSa/s, enabling a fine-grained correlation between power usage and application events. The accuracy of all elements in the measurement infrastructure is studied carefully. Moreover, potential pitfalls in building custom power instrumentation are discussed. We raise the awareness for the properties of power measurements, as disregarding existing inaccuracies can lead to invalid conclusions regarding energy efficiency.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2015 Sixth International Green and Sustainable Computing Conference (IGSC)
PublisherWiley-IEEE Press
Pages1-8
Number of pages8
ISBN (print)978-1-5090-0171-2
Publication statusPublished - 16 Dec 2015
Peer-reviewedYes

Conference

Title2015 Sixth International Green and Sustainable Computing Conference (IGSC)
Duration14 - 16 December 2015
LocationLas Vegas, NV, USA

External IDs

Scopus 84962907365
ORCID /0000-0002-8491-770X/work/141543293
ORCID /0009-0003-0666-4166/work/151475597
ORCID /0000-0002-5437-3887/work/154740510

Keywords

Sustainable Development Goals

Keywords

  • Instruments, Power measurement, Random access memory