management features. In general the
components that are cooled are
generally kept near or below a
temperature that would be the reliability
target for the system. What does this
mean? If the system is running typical
workloads without energy management
features in play and with the system
running in a nominal room (e.g. 25°C)
then the reliability of the system is
determined for these conditions by the
manufacturer for determining warranty
cost. If energy management features
become active, in most cases the
component temperatures are probably
not significantly affected but the speed
of the fans that cool the components
could change dramatically. For those
cases that involve energy saving modes
(e.g., dynamic power saving mode) the
fans can slow down significantly thereby
resulting in an improvement in the
reliability of the fans.
The Future of Server
Power Management
Over the last decade IT equipment
manufacturers have deployed a number
of power management/performance
optimization techniques to meet
the demands of the user. These
optimization techniques cover a
wide range of options from increased
performance to meet business demands
to dynamic changes in frequency and
voltage to match more closely on how
the server is being utilized. Because of
the increased focus on power usage in
a data center these techniques
summarized here will continue to be
enhanced and others will be developed
in the future to meet the needs of the
user.
7X24 MAGAZINE FALL 2014
Roger Schmidt is an IBM Fellow and Chief Engineer for Data Center Energy Efficiency at IBM. He can be reached at
Don Beaty, PE is President at DLB Associates Consulting Engineers. He can be reached at
References
1. Report to Congress on Server and Data
Center Energy Efficiency Public Law 109-
431, August 7, 2007
2. DataCenterDynamics Focus, November
2012.
3. ASHRAE “Datacom Equipment Power
Trends and Cooling Applications”, 2012.
