cpu scaling and overheating.

[Carlos Ribeiro]

On Thu, Mar 4, 2010 at 00:54, Jerry <crashfourit at gmail.com> wrote:

> The idea is to automatically adjust (down) the cpu scaling when the cpu is
> getting overheated by a possibly configurable amount (like 50 to 60C). The
> purpose make users' machines more reliable by not shutting down
> spontaneously when the cpu is over heating or to mitigate other issues.
>

Slightyl off topic, but anyway...

I was left wondering if there is a "sweet spot" to optimize power
consumption (considering both the CPU and air conditioning needed to keep it
cool), processing power and CPU lifetime. For example, in a big datacenter
CPU load could be moved to distribute the heat generation.

Also related, a few years ago I read a paper somewhere stating that
datacenters could be kept warmer than usual in the old times, because a
typical CPU had a economically useful life of only two years. After that
it's best to exchange the CPU for a newer one because the oldest was not as
efficient anymore. Few customers do this kind of math but it makes sense (at
least theorethically).

Having automated tools to deal with this issue is an interesting development
in my opinion, I'm a network enginer.  and I have designed a few medium
sized datacenters in my career, but I do not run a large datacenter, so my
experience with this kind of tuning is limited. People with more experience
on a (let's say) "Google or Amazon scale" may have better information to
bring to the table.

-- 
Carlos Ribeiro
Consultoria em Projetos
twitter: http://twitter.com/carribeiro
blog: http://rascunhosrotos.blogspot.com
mail: carribeiro at gmail.com
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