FIRESTARTER 2: Dynamic Code Generation for Processor Stress Tests

TL;DR

This paper introduces FIRESTARTER 2, an updated open-source tool for dynamic processor stress testing that features online workload generation and self-tuning to adapt to various hardware configurations, demonstrated on AMD Rome systems.

Contribution

It presents the first major update to FIRESTARTER, adding online workload generation and automatic self-tuning for diverse hardware, enhancing its effectiveness and adaptability.

Findings

Auto-tuning adapts to different processor configurations.

Workload generation optimizes power consumption.

Memory hierarchy access impacts power usage.

Abstract

Processor stress tests target to maximize processor power consumption by executing highly demanding workloads. They are typically used to test the cooling and electrical infrastructure of compute nodes or larger systems in labs or data centers. While multiple of these tools already exists, they have to be re-evaluated and updated regularly to match the developments in computer architecture. This paper presents the first major update of FIRESTARTER, an Open Source tool specifically designed to create near-peak power consumption. The main new features concern the online generation of workloads and automatic self-tuning for specific hardware configurations. We further apply these new features on an AMD Rome system and demonstrate the optimization process. Our analysis shows how accesses to the different levels of the memory hierarchy contribute to the overall power consumption. Finally, we demonstrate how the auto-tuning algorithm can cope with different processor configurations and how these influence the effectiveness of the created workload.