Power proportional computing for “Green” servers

Abstract

Achieving energy-efficient “Green” operations within data centers used for applications such as Cloud Computing requires matching the power consumed to the data processed at each server in real-time. Beyond having a high efficiency in the server power supplies, it is vitally important to only draw power when the server is actually processing data. To operate at maximum energy efficiency, in the times when a server is idle it needs to draw no power for the server farm. By matching power draw to actual data processing activity at logic speeds, the average energy draw of the server farm drops by 50% or more with no reduction in throughput. Drawing on technology developed for efficient radio transmitters, an agile power supply, able to provide tight voltage regulation and still transition between power-off and power-on (or the other way) in nanoseconds without transition overshoot is described. With this nanosecond agility, this also solves the objective for elastic computing. Additionally, the supply pin pairing required by this energy management method provides benefits toward reducing electromagnetic interference (EMI). Proportional reduction in processor operating temperature improves reliability, along with reducing facility cooling loads.