Title: On the accuracy and usefulness of analytic energy models for contemporary multicore processors,
Abstract: This paper presents refinements to the execution-cache-memory performance
model and a previously published power model for multicore processors. The
combination of both enables a very accurate prediction of performance and
energy consumption of contemporary multicore processors as a function of
relevant parameters such as number of active cores as well as core and Uncore
frequencies. Model validation is performed on the Sandy Bridge-EP and
Broadwell-EP microarchitectures. Production-related variations in chip quality
are demonstrated through a statistical analysis of the fit parameters obtained
on one hundred Broadwell-EP CPUs of the same model. Insights from the models
are used to explain the performance- and energy-related behavior of the
processors for scalable as well as saturating (i.e., memory-bound) codes. In
the process we demonstrate the models' capability to identify optimal operating
points with respect to highest performance, lowest energy-to-solution, and
lowest energy-delay product and identify a set of best practices for
energy-efficient execution.