From owner-freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Jan 27 04:55:57 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: arch@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.ORG Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3100516A420; Fri, 27 Jan 2006 04:55:57 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from oberman@es.net) Received: from postal2.es.net (postal2.es.net [198.128.3.206]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A4D1143D4C; Fri, 27 Jan 2006 04:55:56 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from oberman@es.net) Received: from ptavv.es.net ([198.128.4.29]) by postal2.es.net (Postal Node 2) with ESMTP (SSL) id IBA74465; Thu, 26 Jan 2006 20:55:53 -0800 Received: from ptavv.es.net (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ptavv.es.net (Tachyon Server) with ESMTP id F36B34503E; Thu, 26 Jan 2006 20:55:53 -0800 (PST) X-Mailer: exmh version 2.7.2 01/07/2005 with nmh-1.0.4 To: Thomas.Sparrevohn@btinternet.com In-reply-to: Your message of "Fri, 27 Jan 2006 02:32:10 GMT." <200601270232.12528.Thomas.Sparrevohn@btinternet.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Thu, 26 Jan 2006 20:55:53 -0800 From: "Kevin Oberman" Message-Id: <20060127045553.F36B34503E@ptavv.es.net> Cc: current@freebsd.org, Poul-Henning Kamp , arch@freebsd.org, Ian FREISLICH , freebsd-current@freebsd.org, Alexander Leidinger Subject: Re: [TEST/REVIEW] CPU accounting patches X-BeenThere: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussion related to FreeBSD architecture List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 27 Jan 2006 04:55:57 -0000 > On Thursday 26 January 2006 06:06, Ian FREISLICH wrote: > > > > > I wonder how many people still bill for CPU time? I'd go for the > > faster context switches. > > > > Almost all major ITO's providers - From SUN, HP, IBM, EDS etc. has offerings > that in some shape or other uses a "Utility model" based upon some sort of > financial model based upon actual CPU/IO etc. usage - It is a major area now > and provides one of the corner stones in the movement towards "Public Utility > models" > > So it is very relevant as an area for general improvement and the "historical" > models are not really good enough, for further information take a look a > products as MicroMeasure etc. Good accounting is very important to some, but the issue of dealing with reduced clock speed is almost certainly of no issue when it comes to charging for computer use. I can't imagine any reason someone would be paying for CPU time on a processor not running "full out". The only time that this might be an issue is when thermal management takes over. I'd hope that thermal management would never kick in on a commercial compute server, but, if it did, the customer should, at least, only pay for the number of seconds the job would have run had it been properly cooled. (Actually, he should probably pay less as his time is also being wasted.) -- R. Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) Ernest O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) E-mail: oberman@es.net Phone: +1 510 486-8634