ABSTRACT
Voltages 80 References 83
2.1 INTRODUCTION Conserving energy at the cost of minimal performance degradation is an important goal in high-performance computing systems. Energy
conservation can be achieved in the hardware by various mechanisms, like dynamic voltage and frequency scaling [1], state transitions among various power states, or temporarily turning off some resources when they are not being used. Hardware enhancements for energy optimization have been reasonably well studied in the past. However, energy optimizations cannot leverage these hardware mechanisms without adequate support from the system software. Software like the compiler, operating system, and runtime systems can act as enablers for these energy-conserving mechanisms to be used effectively. Without these enablers, hardware optimizations alone cannot accrue the predicted energy benefits. In particular, the compiler is capable of automatically analyzing program behavior, data access patterns, and resource requirements of complex application programs.
