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Server Efficiency Rating Tool (SERT)TMThis page provides information on the Server Efficiency Rating Tool (SERT)TM currently being worked on by the SPECpower committee (more info here) If you have reached this page in search of information about the SPECpower_ssj2008 benchmark, please click hereto go to that web page. SummaryThe United States Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) ENERGY STAR Development Team is currently working on Version 2.0 of their Computer Server Specification. Version 2.0 aims to evolve the program by adding a means to measure the overall efficiency of the server while it is performing actual computing work via an Active Mode Efficiency Rating Tool. The SPECpower committee is currently working on the design,
implementation and delivery of the Server Efficiency Rating Tool (SERT)TM,
a next generation tool set that will measure and evaluate the energy
efficiency of computer servers. The SERT is designed to satisfy the
needs of the ENERGY STAR program as well as other energy efficiency
programs around the globe. This public draft outlines the design of the
SERT for review by EPA stakeholders, their associates, and others
interested in energy efficiency programs for computer servers. It
can be downloaded from the link below: The SERT is currently available to a small group of Beta-1 users and to SPEC members. The Beta-1 version of the SERT has many, but not all of the features that are planned for final release. Future Beta and Release Candidate versions are planned for distribution to a wider audience. Feedback to SPEC regarding the SERT may be sent to support@spec.org. About SPECThe Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC) was formed by computer industry participants in 1988 to establish industry standards for measuring compute performance. SPEC has since become the largest and most influential benchmark consortium. Its mission is to ensure that the marketplace has a fair and useful set of metrics to analyze the newest generation of IT Equipment. The SPEC community has developed more than 30 industry-standard benchmarks for system performance evaluation in a variety of application areas and provided thousands of benchmark licenses to companies, resource centers, and educational institutions globally. Organizations using these benchmarks have published more than 20,000 peer-reviewed performance reports. SPEC has a long history of designing, developing, and releasing industry-standard computer system performance benchmarks in a range of industry segments, plus peer-reviewing the results of benchmark runs. Performance benchmarking and the necessary work to develop and release new benchmarks can lead to disagreements among participants. Therefore, SPEC has developed an operating philosophy and range of normative behaviors that encourage cooperation and fairness amongst diverse and competitive organizations. The increasing demand for energy-efficient IT Equipment has resulted in the need for power and performance benchmarks. In response, the SPEC community established SPECpower, an initiative to augment existing industry standard benchmarks with a power/energy measurement. Leading engineers and scientists in the fields of benchmark development and energy efficiency made a commitment to tackle this task. The development of the first industry-standard benchmark that measures the power and performance characteristics of server-class compute equipment started on January 26th 2006. In December of 2007, SPECpower_ssj2008 was released, which exercises the CPUs, caches, memory hierarchy and the scalability of shared memory processors on multiple load-levels. The benchmark runs on a wide variety of operating systems and hardware architectures. In version 1.10, which was released on April 15th 2009, SPEC augmented SPECpower_ssj2008 with multi-node support (e.g., blade-support). More detailed information about SPEC maybe found here. Information on joining SPEC can also be found here. The EPA’s ENERGY STAR for Computer Server Specification and SPECSPEC applauds the EPA for its goal to drive toward greater energy efficiency in IT Equipment, and SPEC considers the EPA ENERGY STAR Program an industry partner in this effort. The development of an Active Mode Efficiency Rating Tool is an essential component in the ongoing effort to reduce worldwide energy consumption and paves the way for a successful ENERGY STAR for Computer Server program that has the potential to harmonize energy efficiency programs worldwide. SPEC welcomes this opportunity to work with the EPA on the SERT in support of the ENERGY STAR Specification for Computer Server and is proudly looking forward to continuing our long-standing association with the EPA ENERGY STAR Development Team. Differences from Conventional BenchmarksPerformance benchmarks and energy efficiency benchmarks tend to focus on capabilities of computer servers in specific business models or application areas. The SERT is focused on providing a first order of approximation of energy efficiency across a broad range of application environments. Benchmarks tend to focus on optimal conditions, including tuning options to customize the configuration and software to the application of the benchmark business model. The need to achieve competitive benchmark results often causes significant investment in the benchmark process. The SERT is designed to be more economical and easier to use, requiring minimal equipment and skills though:
Where a benchmark represents a fixed reference point, ENERGY STAR programs are designed to foster continuous improvement, with thresholds for success rising as the industry progresses. The SERT will be designed to match this paradigm, including:
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