1E-1-1F

Power Consumption Monitoring System for Personal Computers

by Analyzing Their Operating States

Eiji Hirao, Shigeyuki Miyamoto, Masahiro Hasegawa, and Hiroo Harada

(NEC Corporation R&D Unit Fundamental and Environmental Research Laboratories)
e-hirao@bu.jp. nec. com

Abstract
We focused on reducing the power consumption of
information and communication technology (ICT
products as an effective measure because power
consumption has expanded rapidly as these products
have spread through offices and homes. We consider that
a low motivation to save power is one reason preventing
reduction in the power consumption of these products.
Therefore we developed a system that monitors and
displays the power consumption of ICT products by
analyzing their operating states. This system will enable
more users to take advantage of power saving functions
as the system requires no additional devices for
measuring power consumption because it is completely
implemented with software. Moreover, this system should
motivate users to reduce power consumption by
providing power consumption information.
Key words: Kyoto Protocol, Power Consumption,
Monitoring System, Personal Computer, ICT Product.
PC Server
1. Introduction
The Kyoto Protocol that obligated participating
countries to cut their greenhouse gas emissions went into
effect on February 2005. However, the amount of
greenhouse gases emitted by Japan was increased by
7.6% from 1990 to 2002 even though Japan is obligated
to reduce its emissions by 6%. Japan should prepare
effective measures to fulfill its emission reduction
obligations. The increase in green house gas emissions is
likely due to CO2 emissions from the residential and
commercial sectors. For example, CO2 emissions from
the residential and commercial sectors, respectively, were
28.8% and 36.7% larger in 2002 than in 1990 in Japan.
The CO2 emissions produced by information and
communication technology (ICT) products have
increased since ICT is spreading to offices and homes
rapidly. Moreover, improving the product's performance
is accelerating the increase. In response to this matter,
ICT manufacturers have offered various power saving
functions to reduce the power consumption of their
ICT products
Printer , Access router router

Power consumption Convenience

< ~~~~~~~~~Power
m ent server
Figure 1 Concept of ICT products energy management system

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 products. However, it is problems that power saving system, we defined a specific component as a component
functions are not being used sufficiently because they for which power consumption was relatively larger and
reduce convenience, and the motivation to save power is more variable than that of other components. we
low formulated Equation 1 for calculating the power
To solve the problems, we constructed a concept for consumption of the PC by only monitoring the specific
an ICT products energy management system that meets components.
these challenges. Figure 1 shows that concept. This
system consists of the following three steps. X +( - E '(1)
-The first step: The operating states of each ICT product
are monitored, and power consumption is calculated. p Power consumption of a PC over time T
* The second step: Based on the operating states of the p
ICT products, an operating state is selected that iK: Power consumption of a specific component i
minimizes power consumption while maintaining in operating state K
convenience of use. p
* The third step: The operating state of the product is PC': Power consumption of a PC in a standard
automatically controlled to maintain the selected state
operating state.
The first step has the effect of making the user aware of
Pix: Power consumption of a specific component i
in a standard state
power consumption while using the product. The second Here, P K is a variable that changes according to the
and third steps have the effect of minimizing the aK
inconvenience that is a side effect of the power saving operating state K. The can be calculated with
functions. Equation 2 by using the operating states information of
The concept included not only standalone management each specific component i.
but also network management as shown in the figure, p Acpive + x(1f-Atv) *(2)
because we assumed the system would be used in an 'i * ,Active X fi,Acive + Pi,dle i,Active
office. Moreover, this system can be set up a low PtActive: Power consumption of a specific component
introduction price and be spread easily because i in a Active state
everything can be achieved though software applications.
However, a server is required to manage networking. I,dPf
As the first stage of system construction, we developed in a Idling state
a system that monitors and displays the power fi Active : Time rate of a specific component i in an
consumption of ICT products by analyzing their Active state
operating states.
2.3. Selecting specific components to monitor
2. Monitoring method development
To select specific components, we investigated the
2.1. Targeted ICT products changes in power consumption of each component
comprising a PC by obtaining information from one
The ICT products include various devices such as manufacturer and web site. We selected the central
personal computers (PCs), servers, printers and display processing unit (CPU), memory, display, graphics
devices. We first targeted PCs, including desktop PCs, processing unit (GPU), hard disk drive (HDD), and
notebook PCs and PC servers because CO2 emission power supply (PS) as components to monitor.
amount contributed by the use of PCs (including their
display devices) and servers was large. We designed our 2.4. Monitoring operating states
system for PCs compatible with Windows XP and
Windows 2000, which hold a major share in the We investigated the operating states of each specific
operating system (OS) market. component and the relationship between their operating
state and their power consumption. We also studied the
2.2. Power consumption calculation power management technologies already in place in the
OS with the aim of expanding their versatility, and we
We calculated the level of power consumption by investigated the technologies that were available for
multiplying the power consumption of each component monitoring the operation of PCs and specific components.
comprising a PC. To reduce the load on the monitoring

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 We adopted the following monitoring methods of the
operating states for each specific component.
* CPU: The active and idling states were distinguished
by using the counter of the Performance monitor
(%Processor Time).
* Memory The read/write (=active) and refresh (= idle)
states were distinguished using the same counter as
for the CPU.
* Display: The displaying (=active) and suspended (
idle) states were distinguished by measuring the
operation intervals of the keyboard and mouse, and
examining the management conditions set for the
display.
GPU: The active and idling states were distinguished
with the same counter as the CPU.
HDD: The read/write (=active) and idling states were
distinguished by using the counter of the Performance
monitor (%Disk Read Time, %Disk Write
Time, %Idle Time).
PS: The high and low load states were distinguished by
examining the operation intervals of the keyboard and
mouse and the management conditions set to the
system.
consumption information for PCs and specified
components. We also constructed mathematical
expressions to estimate power consumption information
for PCs and specified components from their
manufacturers' specifications because the database does
not contain power consumption information for all kinds
of PCs and components.
Here, using the example of the CPU, we explain how
we constructing mathematical expressions to estimate
power consumption from device specifications.
* Extraction of correlating specifications: We
investigated the correlation between specifications and
power consumption by obtaining this information from
web sites of Intel and AMD. We extracted voltage,
clock frequency, and the type of CPU as specifications
correlated to power consumption.
* Classification of quantitative specifications: We
classified quantitative and qualitative specifications
from the extracted specifications. For the CPU, we
classified voltage and clock frequency as quantitative
specifications and CPU type was classified as a
qualitative specification.

2.5. Acquisition of power consumption Selection of specifications by comparison: Databases

information for each operating state of power consumption data were divided by the
difference in the qualitative specification. We
We made a database of model numbers and power calculated the strength of the correlation between each
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Figure 2 Relation between clock frequency and power consumption for each kind of CPU

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 quantitative specification and power consumption for
each data group. Specifications with strong correlation
were selected for estimating power consumption. For
the CPU, we compared the strength of the voltage
correlation with that of clock frequency for each type of
CPU. Because the strength of the correlation of clock
frequency to power consumption was stronger than that
of voltage, we selected clock frequency. Figure 2
presents the relation between clock frequency and
poweresentsuthemrtion betweeahknd
power consumption for each lock
kind of CPU.
* Construction of estimation equations: We constructed
equations for estimating power consumption by
dividing the quantitative specification for each data
group by the qualitative specification. Because we
found a linear correlation between power consumption
and clock frequency (See Figure 2), we constructed
linear regression expressions of clock frequency for
each kind of CPU.
3. Power consumption monitoring software
development
We developed power consumption monitoring
software for PCs by applying the monitoring method
described above to the database of power consumption
information. This software monitors power consumption
of PCs without any measuring hardware; however the
~~~~~.......?... .. ..
Figure 3 Registration window of power consumption information of monitoring software
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installation and registration of power consumption
information is necessary when introducing the system.
Figure 3 is the registration window forAtthe power
consumption information of the software. first, the
user registers power consumption information using this
window. For registering power consumption information,
the user can select three methods according to the
information being investigated. If the user has power
consumption information for the PC and each component,
the window enables the user to register power
freqUency.consumption information by inputting it directly to the
left-hand area in the window.
If the user has model numbers for the PC and each
component, the window enables the user to register
power consumption information by inputting model
numbers to the center part of the window and searching
the information in the database. If the user has some
specification data for a PC and each component, the
window enables the user to register power consumption
information by inputting that specification data in the
right-hand part of the window, and predicting the power
consumption information based on the estimation
formula described above. This can be done because the
software automatically detects the specification data
necessary for predicting this for all specific components.
The registration of power consumption information is
very easy as long as accuracy is not a high priority.
Figure 4 presents the main window of the monitoring
software. In the upper part of the window, the PC's
?. . . ....
271
 power consumption is displayed in a line chart in real
time. In the center part of the window, the present level
of reduced power consumption achieved for any target
period is gradually displayed.
Six buttons are displayed in the bottom part of the
window. The button at upper left shifts the view to the
window for registering power consumption information
shown in Figure 3. The button at upper center shifts the
view to the measurement setting window. The
measurement setting window enables the user to set
intervals for monitoring power consumption and the PC's
operating states and to initialize the log of monitoring
data.
The upper-right button shifts the view to the analysis
window. The analysis window enables the user to graph
and to output the result of monitoring the power
consumption of PC and each component and a graph of
the PC's operating states at any period. In addition, the
analysis window enables the user to calculate the
electrical energy being consumed by the PC and each
component for any time period. The button at bottom left
shifts the view to the target setting window. The target-
setting window enables the user to set a reduction rate of
amount of power consumed for target periods (two period
settings, short period and long). The reduction rate and
target periods set are reflected in the window area
enclosed by the blue line in the main window. The button
at bottom-center shifts the view to the breakdown display
_ ..
~~consumption
con
_............
----Moreover, this software can motivate users to reduce
Figure 4 Main window of monitoring software
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window. The breakdown display window displays the
power consumption of each component in a line chart in
real time.
4. Verification of the monitoring method and
software
To verify the accuracy of the software, we compared
the software data with the data obtained with devices for
measuring power consumption. The level of power
consumption fell in a range of about ±10% for desktop
PCs and about ±20% for notebooks PCs. We also
examined the effect of running the software to see if that
increased power consumption. The result indicated that
the effect was almost nil; therefore the software is
practical for use.
5. Conclusion
We constructed the concept for a system to manage
energy consumed by ICT products. The system could
imnprove the way such products are used so that operators
would lower power consumption when they use them. As
the first stage of system construction, we considered a
system that monitors and displays the power
consumption of PCs. We found that the ratio of power
c m isvespecia large in Toduts.
We developed a method of monitoring power
su
mns..by...an PCs by analyzing their operating states.
yzing......th eir...op eratin g......states.
tion .......in Cal...P
Then, we constructed a PC power consumption
information database and for specific PC components.
We developed power consumption monitoring software
for PCs. This software constantly monitors the power
consumed by specific PC components and calculates the
electric energy consumed by them over any period.
power consumption, by setting a power consumption
target. In addition, this software can constantly monitor
the operating states of a PC and its specific components
and enables operators to freely view the log data of these
states. In future, the log data can be used to construct a
power control system matched to individual operator use
that will be one part of an energy management system for
ICT products.
Acknowledgements
This report is a result of research done as a
supplementary project of the Ministry of the
Environment in fiscal year 2004.