Title:  Performance and Power Management for Multi-core Processors

Committee:

Dr. Sudhakar Yalamanchili, ECE, Chair , Advisor

Dr. Yorai Wardi, ECE, Co-Advisor

Dr. Magnus Egerstedt, ECE

Dr. Saibal Mukhopadhyay, ECE

Dr. Linda Wills, ECE

Dr. Ada Gavrilovska, CoC

Abstract:

This dissertation addresses the problem of power and performance management for various computing systems, from single voltage island multicore processors to powerconstrained extreme scale cloud systems. Balancing power and performance in modern computing systems is a complex optimization problem. This challenge is addressed by the statement of this thesis: Improving performance and power consumption in modern computing systems will require new techniques, and the body of control theories can provide the basis for such solutions. This thesis addresses this problem through three main contributions: 1. Effective and efficient power & performance management techniques in a single voltage island multi-core processor. 2. Maximizing power efficiency under a power cap in a multi-core processor that is composed of several voltage islands. 3. A hierarchical power management technique to improve performance and energy efficiency under power budgets in a cloud system.