Investigating Real Power Usage on Red Storm

ABSTRACT: High Performance Computing (HPC) has histori-cally been the impetus for new technologies. However, in dealing with power related issues HPC has lagged behind. Power has recently been recognized as one of the major obstacles to fielding a Peta-Flop class system. In this paper we will discuss power related topics by leveraging what is currently a rare capability of examining real power usage at a very granular level on an HPC platform. We will discuss what we have observed, initial efforts to implement power conserving measures, quantifications and comparisons between Light Weight and General Purpose Operating Systems and, finally, areas of investigation that have been enabled by this novel capability