Coordinate page allocation and thread group for improving main memory power efficiency

Abstract

Main Memory is responsible for a large and increasing fraction of the energy consumed by multi-core systems. Therefore, it is critical to address the power issue in the memory subsystem. In this paper, we present a solution to improve memory power efficiency through coordinating page allocation and thread group scheduling (CAS). Partitioning all threads into different thread groups, after using proposed page allocation, threads in the same thread group occupy the same memory rank. Adjusting default Linux CFS, implement thread group scheduling. The CAS alternates active partial memory periodically to allow others power down and prolongs the idleness parts. Our experimental results show that this approach improves energy saving by 10% and reduces performance overhead by 8% with respect to the state of the art polices.