International Business Machines Corporation

Octavian Florin Herescu

Diane Garza Flemming

William A Maron

Mysore Sathyanaranyana Srinivas

Robert H Bell, Jr

Vernon Walter Miller

Michael D Roll

Jose Raul Escalera

Mysore Sathyanarayana Srinivas

Sergio Reyes

Ghadir Robert Gholami

Dirk Michel

James Brian Cunningham

Agustin Mena, Iii

Herman Dietrich Dierks

Kiet Hien Lam

Ghadier R Gholami

Mysore M Srinivas

A data processing system includes physical computing resources that include a plurality of processors. The plurality of processors include a first processor having a first processor type and a second processor having a second processor type that is different than the first processor type. The data processing system also includes a resource manager to assign portions of the physical computing resources to be used when executing logical partitions. The resource manager is configured to assign a first portion of the physical computing resources to a logical partition, to determine characteristics of the logical partition, the characteristics including a memory footprint characteristic, to assign a second portion of the physical computing resources based on the characteristics of the logical partition, and to dispatch the logical partition to execute using the second portion of the physical computing resources.

Assigning a first portion of physical computing resources to a first logical partition and a second portion of the physical computing resources to a second logical portion

A computer implemented method includes determining first characteristics of a first logical partition, the first characteristics including a memory footprint characteristic. The method includes assigning a first portion of a first set of physical computing resources to the first logical partition. The first set of physical computing resources includes a plurality of processors that includes a first processor having a first processor type and a second processor having a second processor type. The first portion includes the second processor. The method includes dispatching the first logical partition to execute using the first portion. The method includes creating a second logical partition that includes the second processor and assigning a second portion of the first set of physical computing resources to the second logical partition. The method includes dispatching the second logical partition to execute using the second portion.

Dynamically assigning a portion of physical computing resource to logical partitions based on characteristics of executing logical partitions

A processor blade determines whether a selected processing task is to be off-loaded to a storage blade for processing. The selected processing task is off-loaded to the storage blade via a planar bus communication path, in response to determining that the selected processing task is to be off-loaded to the storage blade. The off-loaded selected processing task is processed in the storage blade. The storage blade communicates the results of the processing of the off-loaded selected processing task to the processor blade.

Off-loading of processing from a processor blade to storage blades based on processing activity, availability of cache, and other status indicators

A method, system, and computer usable program product for managing thermal condition of a memory are provided in the illustrative embodiments. A condition that a threshold value of a thermal condition of the memory has been exceeded or is likely to be exceeded is identified. A portion of a first workload is identified as being a cause of exceeding the threshold. A second portion of a second workload is identified, the second portion not causing the threshold to be exceeded when executed. A set of operations corresponding to the first portion is interleaved with a second set of operations corresponding to the second portion. The interleaved first and second portions of the first and second workloads are executed, causing the thermal condition of the memory to remain below the threshold. The second portion may use a second memory, a second area of the memory, or a combination thereof when executing.

Managing thermal condition of a memory

Off-loading of processing from a processor blade to storage blades

A method, system and computer program product enables the granular collection and utilization of hardware statistical samples for the efficient scheduling and allocation of data processing resources. In particular, a Partition Statistics Capture and Analysis (PSCA) utility utilizes special purpose registers to collect statistical samples, such as: (1) instructions completed; (2) Level2 (L2) cache misses; (3) cycles per instruction (CPI); and/or (4) other statistics selected based on the programming of the PSCA utility. Further, these statistical samples are utilized for the several purposes, including: (1) determining how long (time) the footprint of a partition takes to become established during the 'cold start' period, i.e., during system instantiation; (2) detecting movement of the CPI curve in order to determine the (shifted) location of the onset of steady state (i.e., the knee) on the CPI curve; and (3) utilizing the statistical samples to guide dispatch decisions and make tuning recommendations.

Capturing hardware statistics for partitions to enable dispatching and scheduling efficiency

A system for managing processor cycles. A set of uncapped partitions are identified that are ready-to-run in response to unused processor cycles being present in a dispatch window. A number of candidate partitions are identified from the identified set of uncapped partitions based on a history of usage where each identified partition used at least 100 percent of its entitlement in a predefined number of previous dispatch windows. Then, a partition is selected from the number of candidate partitions based on a lottery process of the candidate partitions.

Method and system for distributing unused processor cycles within a dispatch window

A method, programmed medium and system are provided in which system bus traffic is moderated with real-time data. The Operating System (OS) is enabled to get information from the firmware (FW) to determine if a resource threshold has been reached. This is accomplished by generating an interrupt to flag the OS when a bus request retry rate has reached a predetermined number. The system firmware plays an integral role in this mechanism, and should be interpreted as a general term which could also include a hypervisor technology. The system firmware will report the bus request retry rate to the operating system by way of, for example, a firmware-generated interrupt. The OS may have something similar to a kernel daemon/service running to intercept the interrupt notice. In the simplest case, the daemon/service will determine if the threshold has been met based on the feedback from the firmware. If so, it will generate a system call that will moderate traffic with an operating system tunable. In one example, the number of simultaneous multithreading (SMT) threads per core will be reduced using a system call. This effectively throttles back the amount of logical threads per core and effectively alleviates the bus request saturation.

Bus access moderation system

A method to manage power in a computing device comprising a controller assembly and a storage assembly comprising a plurality of data storage devices, by selecting a processor parameter, establishing a threshold processor parameter value, establishing a threshold over-parameter time interval, selecting a data storage device parameter, and establishing a nominal data storage device parameter value. The method determines an actual processor parameter value. If the actual processor parameter value is less than or equal to the threshold processor parameter value, the method operates each of the plurality of data storage devices using the nominal data storage device parameter value. If the actual processor parameter value is greater than the threshold processor parameter value, then the method determines an actual over-parameter time interval. If the actual processor parameter value is greater than the threshold processor parameter value, and if the actual over-parameter time interval is greater than the threshold over-parameter time interval, then the method operates each of the plurality of data storage devices using a data storage device parameter value less than the nominal data storage device parameter value.

Apparatus and method to manage power in a computing device

A system for managing data in a plurality of storage locations. In response to a least recently used algorithm wanting to move data from a cache to a storage location, an aging table is searched for an associated entry for the data. In response to finding the associated entry for the data in the aging table, an indicator is enabled on the data. In response to determining that the indicator is enabled on the data, the data is kept in the cache despite the least recently used algorithm wanting to move the data to the storage location.

Method and system for using upper cache history information to improve lower cache data replacement

A system, method and computer-readable medium for balancing access among multiple logical partitions to the physical system resources of a computer system employing system virtualization. Each of the logical partitions is classified, initially during a startup period, in accordance with a level of allocated dispatch window utilization. Performance metrics of one or more of the physical system resources are determined in association with one or more of the logical partitions. The performance metrics determination is performed at a hardware level independent of programming interrupts. During a dispatch window in which a given set of the physical system resources are configured for allocation to one of the logical partitions, the given set of physical system resources are re-allocated to a replacement logical partition in accordance with the determined performance metrics associated with the replacement logical partition and the dispatch window utilization classification of the replacement logical partition.

Workload management in virtualized data processing environment

An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for a configurable blade card. A base card is in physical and electrical communication with a blade connector. The blade connector is in physical and electrical communication with a blade enclosure connector. A secondary card is in physical and electrical communication with the base card to form a blade card. A coupler physically couples the base card and the secondary card. The base card and the secondary card are co-planar and compatible with a blade card form factor.

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Austin, TX, United States of America

Octavian Florin Herescu