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Using Multitasking and SSD Disks for Optimising Computing Cluster Energy-Efficiency

Authors:
Tapio Niemi
Jukka Kommeri
Ari-Pekka Hameri

Keywords: energy-efficiency; multitasking; solid-state disk (SDD); scientific computing.

Abstract:
We tested how solid-state drives (SSD) and multitasking, i.e., running more than one task per CPU core, affect performance and energy consumption in I/O intensive data analysis jobs in high-energy physics (HEP) computing. Our motivation for the study comes from the LHC experiment at CERN producing up to 15 petabytes of data annually. The data is analysed by a huge grid computing infrastructure containing more than 100 000 CPU cores over 140 computing centres in different countries. Our tests indicated that in I/O intensive HEP computing multitasking, mixing heterogeneous tasks, and using SSD disks can clearly improve throughput and lower energy consumption. The throughput improved around 120% and energy consumption decreased around 50% compared to a conventional one task per CPU core setting with a hard disk system.

Pages: 46 to 51

Copyright: Copyright (c) IARIA, 2011

Publication date: May 22, 2011

Published in: conference

ISSN: 2308-412X

ISBN: 978-1-61208-136-6

Location: Venice/Mestre, Italy

Dates: from May 22, 2011 to May 27, 2011