SPEC CPU2006 Platform Settings for Inspur Platform Systems

Operating System Tuning Parameters

Install only the relevant files

Select "minimal" mode when installing the operating system,so that many services are not installed,this will reduce the consumption of resources by the operating system itself. And then install necessary files of cpu test by yum.

SCALING_GOVERNOR

Set this environment variable to "performance" to enable cores to run at performance mode. "scaling_governor" is a configuration file in Linux's "cpufreq" model. There are five mode in "scaling_governor" which are performance, powersave, userspace, ondemand, and conservative. Setting it to "performance" can lock the CPU's frequency at top speed without adjust dynamically.

HUGETLB_MORECORE

Set this environment variable to "yes" to enable applications to use large pages.

LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib64/libhugetlbfs.so

Setting this environment variable is necessary to enable applications to use large pages.


Firmware / BIOS / Microcode Settings

BOIS version

The BIOS version 1.1.2 is a new MRC with an old design. It can allowed the memory be forced to lock in higher frequency by using "Force 1333MHz" setting. The Inspur TS860 system can support E7-8850 v2 with memory in 1333MHz by this version of BIOS.

Hardware Prefetch:

This BIOS option allows the enabling/disabling of a processor mechanism to prefetch data into the cache according to a pattern-recognition algorithm In some cases, setting this option to Disabled may improve performance. Users should only disable this option after performing application benchmarking to verify improved performance in their environment.

Intel Turbo boost Technology:

Enabling this option allows the processor cores to automatically increase its frequency and increasing performance if it is running below power, temperature.

Intel Hyper Threading Technology:

Enabling this option allows to use processor resources more efficiently, enabling multiple threads to run on each core and increases processor throughput, improving overall performance on threaded software.

Memory Frequency:

This option allows memory running at different frequency. There are two options in this setting, one is "Auto" and the other is "Force 1333", If the setting is "Auto", the memory will running at default 1066MHz. Else if the setting is "Force 1333MHz ", the memory will be force to lock in 1333MHz.

C-State

Core C3, Core C6 can be disabled for latency-sensitive applications in order to minimize latency, but disable Core C-states can also significantly limit the amount of turbo when a low number of cores are active, C3 and C6 are recommended to enable in SPEC CPU benchmark.

VT Support

If virtualization is not used, this option should be set to "Disabled", this can result in slight performance liftings and energy savings