Systems and methods to determine processor utilization

• US 20060031691A1
• Filed: 07/29/2005
• Published: 02/09/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/04/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Bacchus, Reza M., Majni, Timothy W., Rhodes, Thomas D.
• Granted Patent: US 7,594,128 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/300
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3228 Monitoring task completion, e.g. by use of idle timers, stop commands or wait commands

Abstract

In at least some embodiments, a system comprises a processor and a memory coupled to the processor. The memory stores processor performance utility instructions and performance adjustment instructions. When executed, the processor performance utility instructions are configured to cause activities of the processor to be counted and to cause a processor utilization value to be determined based on the counts. When executed, the performance adjustment instructions are configured to adjust the processor utilization value based on a comparison of the processor'"'"'s current operating frequency and maximum operating frequency.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processor, the memory stores processor performance utility instructions and performance adjustment instructions,

when executed, the processor performance utility instructions are configured to cause activities of the processor to be counted and to cause a processor utilization value to be determined based on the counts,

when executed, the performance adjustment instructions are configured to adjust the processor utilization value based on a comparison of the processor'"'"'s current operating frequency and maximum operating frequency.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the performance adjustment instructions adjust the processor utilization value by multiplying the processor utilization value by a weight that represents a ratio of the processor'"'"'s current operating frequency to the processor'"'"'s maximum operating frequency.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the performance adjustment instructions adjust the processor utilization value by altering the counts based on the comparison before the processor utilization value is determined.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the counts of processor activities include an operating system (OS) kernel count and a user application count and wherein both the OS kernel count and the user application count are reduced by a ratio of the processor'"'"'s current operating frequency to the processor'"'"'s maximum operating frequency.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the counts of processor activities include a processor idle count and wherein said processor idle count is increased by a total amount that the OS kernel count and the user application count are decreased.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the memory stores workload adjustment instructions that, when executed, are configured to adjust the processor'"'"'s operating frequency based on a workload of the processor.

7. A method, comprising:

determining a processor'"'"'s maximum operating frequency;

determining a processor'"'"'s current operating frequency;

comparing the processor'"'"'s current operating frequency with the processor'"'"'s maximum operating frequency; and

if the current operating frequency is less than the maximum operating frequency, calculating a processor utilization value based on a said comparison.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising counting processor activities, wherein calculating the processor utilization value is also based on processor activity counts.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising modifying the processor activity counts based on the comparison before the processor utilization value is calculated.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein modifying the processor activity counts comprises reducing at least one of an operating system (OS) kernel count and a user application count.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein modifying the processor activity counts comprises increasing a processor idle count.

12. The method of claim 8 further comprising determining a first processor utilization value based on the processor activity counts and determining a second processor utilization value by multiplying the first processor utilization value by a ratio of the processor'"'"'s current operating frequency to the processor'"'"'s maximum operating frequency.

13. The method of claim 8 further comprising using the processor utilization value to determine at least one business-related detail selected from the group consisting of an efficiency of an application, an amount of servers to deploy and an amount of money to charge customers.

14. A digital storage medium storing computer-readable instructions that, when executed, cause a computer system to:

determine a processor'"'"'s maximum operating frequency;

determine a processor'"'"'s current operating frequency;

count processor activities; and

if the processor'"'"'s current operating frequency is less than the processor'"'"'s maximum operating frequency, calculate a processor utilization value based on processor activity counts and a comparison of the processor'"'"'s current operating frequency and maximum operating frequency.

15. The digital storage medium of claim 14 wherein the computer-readable instructions, when executed, further cause the computer system to dynamically adjust the processor'"'"'s operating frequency based on a workload of the processor.

16. The digital storage medium of claim 14 wherein the computer-readable instructions, when executed, cause the computer system to modify the processor activity counts based on the comparison of the processor'"'"'s current operating frequency and maximum operating frequency.

17. The digital storage medium of claim 14 wherein the computer-readable instructions, when executed, cause the computer system to determine a first processor utilization value based on the processor activity counts and to determine a second processor utilization value by multiplying the first processor utilization value by a ratio of the processor'"'"'s current operating frequency to the processor'"'"'s maximum operating frequency.

18. A system, comprising:

means for comparing a processor'"'"'s current operating frequency and maximum operating frequency; and

means for calculating a processor utilization value based on a ratio of the processor'"'"'s current operating frequency to the processor'"'"'s maximum operating frequency.

19. The system of claim 18 further comprising means for modifying processor activity count data based on a comparison of the processor'"'"'s current operating frequency and maximum operating frequency, the processor activity count data being used in calculating the processor utilization value.

20. The system of claim 18 wherein said means for calculating a processor utilization value comprises means for calculating a first processor utilization value based on processor activity count data and means for calculating a second processor utilization value by modifying the first processor utilization value based on the ratio of the processor'"'"'s current operating frequency to the processor'"'"'s maximum operating frequency.

21. A system, comprising:

a plurality of processors; and

a memory coupled to the plurality of processors, the memory stores processor utility instructions and adjustment instructions,

when executed, the processor utility instructions are configured to cause activity count data to be collected for a processor and to cause an observed processor utilization value to be determined based on the activity count data,

when executed, the adjustment instructions are configured to calculate a true processor utilization value for the processor based on a comparison of the processor'"'"'s current operating frequency and maximum operating frequency.

22. The system of claim 21 wherein the processor utility instructions are further configured, when executed, to cause activity count data to be collected for each of the plurality of processors and to cause an observed processor utilization value to be determined for each processor based on the activity count data for each of the plurality of processors.

23. The system of claim 22 wherein the processor utility instructions are further configured, when executed, to determine an average of the observed processor utilization values.

24. The system of claim 21 wherein the adjustment instructions are further configured, when executed, to calculate a true processor utilization value for each of the plurality of processors based on a comparison of each processor'"'"'s current operating frequency and maximum operating frequency.

25. The system of claim 24 wherein the adjustment instructions are further configured, when executed, to determine an average of the true processor utilization values.