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Towards better performance per watt in virtual environments on asymmetric single-ISA multi-core systems

Published: 31 July 2009 Publication History

Abstract

Single-ISA heterogeneous multicore architectures promise to deliver plenty of cores with varying complexity, speed and performance in the near future. Virtualization enables multiple operating systems to run concurrently as distinct, independent guest domains, thereby reducing core idle time and maximizing throughput. This paper seeks to identify a heuristic that can aid in intelligently scheduling these virtualized workloads to maximize performance while reducing power consumption.
We propose that the controlling domain in a Virtual MachineMonitor or hypervisor is relatively insensitive to changes in core frequency, and thus scheduling it on a slower core saves power while only slightly affecting guest domain performance. We test and validate our hypothesis and further propose a metric, the Combined Usage of a domain, to assist in future energy-efficient scheduling. Our preliminary findings show that the Combined Usage metric can be used as a starting point to gauge the sensitivity of a guest domain to variations in the controlling domain's frequency.

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    Published In

    cover image ACM SIGOPS Operating Systems Review
    ACM SIGOPS Operating Systems Review  Volume 43, Issue 3
    July 2009
    109 pages
    ISSN:0163-5980
    DOI:10.1145/1618525
    Issue’s Table of Contents

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    Association for Computing Machinery

    New York, NY, United States

    Publication History

    Published: 31 July 2009
    Published in SIGOPS Volume 43, Issue 3

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    Author Tags

    1. performance per watt
    2. performance-asymmetric multicore architectures
    3. virtualization

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    • (2019)Towards green data centersJournal of Parallel and Distributed Computing10.1016/j.jpdc.2012.08.00572:12(1770-1780)Online publication date: 4-Jan-2019
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    • (2017)An Energy-Aware Runtime Management of Multi-Core Sensory SwarmsSensors10.3390/s1709195517:9(1955)Online publication date: 24-Aug-2017
    • (2017)On the Interplay Between Throughput, Fairness and Energy Efficiency on Asymmetric Multicore ProcessorsThe Computer Journal10.1093/comjnl/bxx03861:1(74-94)Online publication date: 27-Apr-2017
    • (2017)Towards completely fair scheduling on asymmetric single-ISA multicore processorsJournal of Parallel and Distributed Computing10.1016/j.jpdc.2016.12.011102:C(115-131)Online publication date: 1-Apr-2017
    • (2015)How Small Can it Be?Proceedings of the 2015 IEEE 17th International Conference on High Performance Computing and Communications, 2015 IEEE 7th International Symposium on Cyberspace Safety and Security, and 2015 IEEE 12th International Conf on Embedded Software and Systems10.1109/HPCC-CSS-ICESS.2015.302(455-462)Online publication date: 24-Aug-2015
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    • (2013)On understanding the energy consumption of ARM-based multicore serversProceedings of the ACM SIGMETRICS/international conference on Measurement and modeling of computer systems10.1145/2465529.2465553(267-278)Online publication date: 17-Jun-2013
    • (2013)Survey of Energy-Cognizant Scheduling TechniquesIEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems10.1109/TPDS.2012.2024:7(1447-1464)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2013
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