GUI overhead
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Transcript of GUI overhead
Energy Overhead of the GUI in
ServerOperating SystemsHeather Brotherton
Introduction
This study will
Make a case for reducing use of the graphical user interface
Avoid focus on a particular brand of operating system
OPERATING SYSTEM
Nearly every server, controlling systems resources
Allows us to take advantage of the Cascade Effect
Cascade Effect
Potential Savings
Source: EXP Critical Facilities Inc., Intel Corp.
Example
If a PCI card such as video card were removed for a savings of 41watts from 500 servers in a data center, the cumulative watts saved would be 58,220 watts per year.
At an average of ten cents per kilowatt-hour this results in a savings of$51,035.65 per year.
Experiment
Energy readings were collected for a minimum of one hour using the Watts Up? Meter.
Monitoring Tool
Watts up? Pro universal outlet version. This meter is capable of measuring 100 to 250v within a plus or minus 1.5 percent accuracy.
The meter is also capable of logging at one-second intervals and provides a USB interface and PC software
Linux Observations
Linux based server operating systems ran the top command during the observations.
top -d 1 > /home/testOSName.txt
Windows Observations
Windows ran the Typeperf command line tool during the observations configured to provide much of the same information as provided by top.
typeperf “\Memory\Available bytes” “\processor(*)\% processortime” “\Process(*)\Thread Count” > testOSName.csv
Hardware
Intel Atom D525 1.8GHz dual core processor
Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3150
Gigabit LAN
SD card reader
5 USB connections
Fan-less external power supply
Intel Solid State Drive 80GB 320 Series
PNY 4GB PC3-10666 1.3GHz DDR3 SoDIMM
Server
Baseline watt consumption mean energy consumed is 7.96 watts and the median is 8.70 watts.
After the addition of 4GB RAM to the server during a one hour period is 15.36 watts and the median is 15 watts.
After Solid State Drive (SSD) installation was a mean of 17.42 watts and a median consumption of 17.7 watts.
Baseline for the server of 17.42 to17.7 watts
Server Operating Systems
The software used for the testing were the following x86 operating systems: Ubuntu 11.10 (Linux) Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter
Core Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter
GUI
Consumption by OS
GUI vs Non GUITime(Minutes)
Threads(Mean)
Watts(Mean)
Time(Minutes)
Threads(Mean)
Watts(Mean)
9:42 373 18.65 3:16 263 17.1
9:43 361 18.6 3:17 263 17
9:44 362 18.65 3:18 260 17
9:45 360 18.65 3:19 256 17.05
9:46 360 18.7 3:20 259 17.05
9:47 368 18.7 3:21 255 17.15
9:48 364 18.6 3:22 255 17.25
9:49 363 18.7 3:23 252 17.1
9:50 362 18.65 3:24 250 17.2
9:51 364 18.7 3:25 254 17.2
9:52 376 18.65 3:26 250 17.25
Table explained
The mean number of threads: GUI 365 Non-GUI 256
Difference approximately 109 threads
Indicates that a reduction of the ~100-thread GUI overhead can save roughly one watt at the server level.
FINDINGS
Operating systems that do not run a graphical user interface (GUI) tested use roughly 17.5 to 17.6 watts.
Graphical user interface (GUI) based operating systems tested consumed 18.1 to 18.9 watts roughly.
Not using a GUI would save .6 to 1.3 watts per server.
Conclusion
Savings of roughly 1 watt per server
Doesn’t seem like a big deal?
Maybe, but now you don’t need that video card…
Math
(1watt GUI + 41 watt video card) 2.84 Cascade Effect = 119.28 watts
Hours in a year 8765.81
wattage x hours used ÷ 1000 x price per kWh = cost of electricity
(119.28 x 8765.81 ÷ 1000) x .1 = 104.55858168
For 500 servers $52,279.29