Power signature analysis of the SPECpower_ssj2008 benchmark

As the power consumption of a server system becomes a mainstream concern in enterprise environments, understanding the system´s power behavior at varying utilization levels provides us a key to select appropriate energy-efficiency optimizations. In this work, we present an in-depth analysis of 177 SPECpower_ssj2008 results published between 2007-2010 to understand the changes of server´s power behavior over time. In particular, we identified simple nonlinear functions appropriate for modeling the power behavior of today´s, aggressively power-managed, machines. We consider this work as an important first step towards developing capability for power signature analysis of a high-end computer system.