ACMD Seminar: The Impact and Influence of Power Measurement on GreenHPC

Kirk Cameron
Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs and Professor, Dept. of Computer Science, Virginia Tech

Tuesday, July 23, 2024, 3:00-4:00 PM ET (1:00-2:00 PM MT)

Abstract: This is a story about the potential impact and influence of accurate measurement. In the early 2000s, we set out to be the first to measure and understand how power is consumed in clusters of computer systems - servers with CPUs, memory, disks, NICs, and GPUs. We planned to use our findings to inform "even cooler" ideas for efficiency improvements in server and supercomputer designs. While our power efficiency techniques were pioneering and seeded a new research area (power-aware HPC), over the decades a compelling legacy of our work has been our power measurement approach. Why? Following our credible and compelling case for power as a first-class design criteria in computer systems, many others were inspired to develop Green HPC solutions. However, researchers lacked the tools and expertise to measure their results. In this talk, I will provide a historical perspective on the Green HPC movement that begins with the need for power measurement of computer systems and data centers and ends with acknowledgment of the many challenges ahead.

Bio: Dr. Kirk W. Cameron is a pioneer of Green HPC and works to improve performance and power efficiency in high performance computing (HPC) systems and applications. He is a Professor of Computer Science, COE Faculty Fellow, and currently an Associate Vice President at Virginia Tech. His work has led to industry-leading power-performance benchmarking - he co-founded the Green500 List and SPEC Power. He has commercialized his power measurement and management technologies in his venture-backed startup company MiserWare (2007-2014) that made the world's most popular free energy management software (grano.la) with half a million users in 160+ countries. Research accolades include both NSF and DOE Career Awards, IBM and AMD Faculty Awards, best papers (e.g., HPDC 2017) and the LLNL Science/Technology Excellence Award. He is an ACM Distinguished Scientist, an IEEE Fellow, and in 2018-2019 he held a Distinguished Visiting Fellowship from the UK Royal Academy of Engineering.

Host: Michael Mascagni

Note: This talk will be recorded to provide access to NIST staff and associates who could not be present to the time of the seminar. The recording will be made available in the Math channel on NISTube, which is accessible only on the NIST internal network. This recording could be released to the public through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. Do not discuss or visually present any sensitive (CUI/PII/BII) material. Ensure that no inappropriate material or any minors are contained within the background of any recording. (To facilitate this, we request that cameras of attendees are muted except when asking questions.)

Note: Visitors from outside NIST must contact Meliza Lane at least 24 hours in advance.