METHODS OF ACHIEVING COGNIZANT POWER MANAGEMENT

• US 20100235654A1
• Filed: 10/21/2009
• Published: 09/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/07/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sunbird Software, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Raritan Americas Incorporated (Legrand SA)
• Inventors: Paetz, Christian, Onyshkevych, Vsevolod, Weinstock, Neil, Malik, Naim R., Yang, Allen, Somasundaram, Siva
• Granted Patent: US 8,429,431 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/300
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/26 Power supply means, e.g. regulation thereof for memories G11C
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3209 Monitoring remote activity, e.g. over telephone lines or network connections
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/324 by lowering clock frequency
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3296 by lowering the supply or operating voltage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5094 where the allocation takes into account power or heat criteria power management in computers in general G06F1/3203; thermal management in computers in general G06F1/206
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A system and method of increasing the efficiency of overall power utilization in data centers by integrating a power management approach based on a comprehensive, dynamic model of the data center created with integrated environmental and computational power monitoring to correlate power usage with different configurations of business services utilization, with the techniques of CPU level power management

Claims

1. A method for by readily cognizant power management in a distributed computing system, the distributing computing system having a number of processing units, comprising the steps of:

a) gathering process level information from different mechanisms to improve accuracy of power metric obligation;

b) gathering environmental metrics;

c) generating a behavior model based on the process level information and the environmental metrics; and

d) setting a state in at least one of the number of processing units based on applying the behavioral model to application, utilization and environmental contexts.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the a number of processing units includes at least one of a plurality of central processing units, a plurality of functional units within central processing units, and a plurality of hypervisors managing virtual machines.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the state is one of a plurality of performance states.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein setting one of a plurality of performance states includes changing the frequency of a processing unit.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein setting one of a plurality of performance states includes changing the voltage of a processing unit.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein setting one of a plurality of performance states includes changing the frequency and the voltage of a processing unit.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein one of a plurality of performance states includes at least a first performance state and a second performance state, wherein the first performance state can bear a greater computational load than the second state.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the state is one of a plurality of sleep states.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein one of a plurality of sleep states includes at least a first sleep state and second sleep state, wherein the first sleep state has a lower wake up time than the second sleep state.

10. A method for by readily cognizant power management in a distributed computing system, the distributing computing system having a number of processing units, comprising the steps of

a) gathering process level information from different mechanisms to improve accuracy of power metric obligation;

b) gathering environmental metrics;

c) generating a behavior model based on the process level information and the environmental metrics;

d) selecting a state for at least one of the number of processing units based on applying the behavioral model to application, utilization and environmental contexts.

e) issuing a software call to an operating system running on the at least one of the number of processing units to set a state in at least one of the number of processing units based on applying the behavioral model to application, utilization and environmental contexts.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the a number of processing units includes at least one of a plurality of central processing units, a plurality of functional units within central processing units, and a plurality of hypervisors managing virtual machines.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the state is one of a plurality of performance states.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein setting one of a plurality of performance states includes changing the frequency of a processing unit.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein setting one of a plurality of performance states includes changing the voltage of a processing unit.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein setting one of a plurality of performance states includes changing the frequency and the voltage of a processing unit.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein one of a plurality of performance states includes at least a first performance state and a second performance state, wherein the first performance state can bear a greater computational load than the second state.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein the state is one of a plurality of sleep states.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein one of a plurality of sleep states includes at least a first sleep state and second sleep state, wherein the first sleep state has a lower wake up time than the second sleep state.