Intel® Power Checker 2 · Intel Power Checker v2.0 User’s Guide 5 1. Introduction 1.1 Welcome The Intel® Power Checker is an easy-to-use tool designed to measure power-related

Intel® Power Checker 2.0

User’s Guide

December 2011

Revision 1.5

2 Intel® Power Checker v2.0 User’s Guide

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Contents

Intel Power Checker v2.0 User’s Guide 3

Contents

1. Introduction ........................................................................................................... 5

1.1 Welcome ...........................................................................................................................5

1.2 Key Features ...................................................................................................................5

1.3 Requirements .................................................................................................................5

2. Getting Started ..................................................................................................... 7

2.1 Installation ......................................................................................................................7

Installation of Java Runtime Environment ............................................................................. 8

Installation of the Power Meter Device ................................................................................... 8

Intel® Power Checker Criteria ................................................................................................... 8

2.2 Using the Intel® Power Checker ...........................................................................8

Step 1: Specifying the Power Meter device ........................................................................... 8

Step 2: Measure System Baseline ............................................................................................ 9

Step 3: Measure Active Application ........................................................................................ 11

Step 3: Measure Active Application (continued) ............................................................... 12

Step 4: Measure Idle Application ............................................................................................ 13

View Results ..................................................................................................................................... 15

3. Features ................................................................................................................. 16

3.1 Assessment Environment Information ............................................................. 16

3.2 Immediate Results..................................................................................................... 16

3.3 Log Results to File ...................................................................................................... 16

3.4 Submit Results ............................................................................................................ 16

4. Understand Tool Results ................................................................................ 17

5. Troubleshooting ................................................................................................. 20

5.1 Turning off Windows Indexing Service. ........................................................... 20

5.2 C3 Residency State .................................................................................................... 21

5.3 Record a Valid Test Run........................................................................................... 22

5.4 Unexpected Platform Timer Results................................................................... 22

5.5 Select a Nonexistent Power Meter Device ....................................................... 22

Revision History


Revision History

Revision Number

Description Date

1.1 Initial release Nov 30, 2011

1.2 Incorporated feedback and edited the troubleshooting section Dec 2, 2011

1.3 Added another case to the nonexistent power meter device item

in the troubleshooting section

Dec 5, 2011

1.4 Removed the power meter device model Yokogawa WT210 Dec 8, 2011

1.5 Edited the subsection 5.5 Dec 16, 2011

Introduction


1. Introduction

1.1 Welcome

The Intel® Power Checker is an easy-to-use tool designed to measure power-

related parameters while an application is idle as well as when it is processing a

workload.

1.2 Key Features

Assessment Environment Information: Displays details about your test environment after the assessment is completed.

Immediate Results: Provides immediate results after the conclusion of the assessment process.

Log Results to File: Saves log files and report files in addition to providing the assessment results in the GUI.

1.3 Requirements

The following are the minimum system requirements for installing and using the Intel® Power Checker. Other configurations might work but have not been verified.

System:

A laptop or netbook based on Intel® Core™ processor or Intel® Atom™

processor technology. A desktop with an external power meter or a desktop that is capable of providing the power consumption information.

Java* Runtime Environment (JRE) version 6 update 11 (or higher). See the

Installation section for instructions.

Supported Power Meter Devices:

Extech 380801

Supported operating systems:

Microsoft Windows* XP with Service Pack 3

Microsoft Windows Vista* with Service Pack 2

Microsoft Windows 7 with Service Pack 1 (32-bit and 64-bit)

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2

Applications that can be tested:

Any application that has been designed to work using technology based on Intel® products.

Any compiled language application

Java Framework applications

Getting Started


.NET Framework applications

Getting Started


2. Getting Started

2.1 Installation

The application Intel® Power Checker comes with an easy to set up single installation package, depending on the operating system being used either x86 or x64):

For English, iPChkSetupENU_2.0_x86.msi or iPChkSetupENU_2.0_x64.msi

For Chinese, iPChkSetupCHS_2.0_x86.msi or iPChkSetupCHS_2.0_x64.msi

For Russian, iPChkSetupRUS_2.0_x86.msi or iPChkSetupRUS_2.0_x64.msi

For Spanish, iPChkSetupESM_2.0_x86.msi or iPChkSetupESM_2.0_x64.msi

You will also need to install the correct version of Java Runtime Environment (x86 or x64) that matches Intel ®Power Checker. Instructions for Java installation are in

Section 2.1.1.

This file displays the icon shown in Figure 1. To start the installation, simply double-click on the icon and follow the instructions

Figure 1: The Intel® Power Checker installation icon.

After the installation is complete, double-click the icon on the Intel® Power Checker shortcut to launch the application (Figure 2).

Figure 2: The Intel® Power Checker shortcut.

Getting Started


Installation of Java Runtime Environment

1. Download Java Runtime Environment (JRE) version 6 update 11 or higher from www.java.com. If you have installed the x86 version of Intel® Power Checker, you should install the x86 version of Java Runtime Environment. Likewise if you

have installed the 64-bit version of Intel® Power Checker, you should install the x64 version of Java Runtime Environment.

2. Run the downloaded “binary” file to install.

Installation of the Power Meter Device

If there is a power meter device, connect it to the testing system as specified in the power meter device manual.

Intel® Power Checker Criteria

Intel has defined a set of test criteria designed to help assess the power related events

that occur when running your application, both while testing and when idle. The Intel® Power Checker will analyze your application as follows:

Confirm that Intel Core processor or Intel Atom processor based technology is

present. Quantify the power-related usage of the application being tested.

2.2 Using the Intel® Power Checker

The Intel® Power Checker provides a GUI wizard for ease of use.

Step 1: Specifying the Power Meter device

Figure 3: The first screen of the wizard

On the wizard’s first screen (Figure 3), at the field select power meter device option, select the power meter model that is attached to the testing system. By default, this

http://www.java.com/

Getting Started


field is set to no power meter device which means there is no power meter device. If

there is no power meter, Intel® Power Checker will check to see if the testing system is

capable of providing the power consumption information. If it is capable then Intel® Power Checker will detect to see if the correct power driver, EzPwr.sys, is installed. If

that driver is not installed then an error message will pop up saying that the driver is not

installed instruct users to click the OK button to exit. The power driver can be downloaded from this link:

http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/intel-power-gadget/

If the testing system is not capable of providing the power consumption information then Intel® Power Checker will check to see if the testing system is a mobile system

(laptop or netbook), requiring that the platform run off of a battery. If it is not then an error message will be displayed and instruct users to click the OK button to exit. If it is

Intel® Power Checker will check to make sure that the mobile system is on DC (battery)

mode. If it is not then a message will be displayed instructing user to disconnect the AC cord and re-run Intel® Power Checker.

When you are ready, click the “Next” button to go to the next screen.

Step 2: Measure System Baseline

Figure 4: The Measure System Baseline screen

The “Step 2: Measure System Baseline” screen is the first measurement that the Intel®

Power Checker will find. At this time your application should not be running and

unnecessary processes, such as operating system updates, virus scans, media players,

and internet browsers should be disabled. Windows Indexing Service should also be disabled. For help in turning off Windows Indexing Service, see 5.1 in the

Troubleshooting section of this document.

Click the “Start” button to begin this phase of the testing. This is the first of three periods that the Intel® Power Checker will use to take various measurements throughout the assessment process. This measurement will start when the system is in

idle state. The Intel® Power Checker waits 15 seconds before starting the

measurements to give the system sufficient time to achieve idle state. The progress bar

http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/intel-power-gadget/

Getting Started


will show remaining test time of this phase. A data file is created during each phase of

the assessment to hold the current information. If you cancel the assessment in any of

the three phases then a data file will not be created for that phase. After all three phases have been completed, a Tool Report File will be generated containing all of the

results.

Once the baseline data collection is complete, click the “Next” button to proceed to the next phase.

Figure 5: Collecting the baseline measurement

After users click the “Next” button, a message box will appear instructing users to launch the application(s) to prepare for the next step.

Getting Started


Figure 6: The baseline measurement screen after the “next” button is clicked

Step 3: Measure Active Application

Figure 7: Select the Application for the Measure Active Application phase

At this step you will see this screen. Now is the time to start your application. Once you have done so, you should click the “Refresh List” button so that your application’s

process will be available to select. Use the scroll bar to locate your application in the

Getting Started


process list and click on that line to select it. You can also use the filter box to enter a

filter string to narrow down your choices and make it easier to locate the correct

process. Once you have selected your application, click “Next” to move on to the data collection for this phase.

Step 3: Measure Active Application (continued)

Figure 8: Collecting the data for the Measure Active Application phase

Before starting the assessment, be sure to select a section of your application (a workload) to be measured. Your workload should consist of a critical section or file to be loaded that will stress your application when running. Start this section or file now.

After your application workload has started, click the “Start” button on this screen (Figure 8) to begin capturing measurement data for this phase. You should always begin

capturing data after the workload or critical section has begun. The “Start” button is disabled while the measurement is in progress.

Getting Started


Figure 9: The Measure Active Application (continued) screen with the testing started.

Figure 9 shows the screen while testing. During the analysis process, you can cancel the current data capture period by clicking the “Cancel” button.

When this measurement has been completed, please close your application or stop the workload.

Step 4: Measure Idle Application

You may receive a page at this point letting you know that your application is still running as shown in Figure 9. Allow enough time for your application to settle into an

idle (non-busy) state, and click “Next” to proceed to the next page.

Getting Started


Figure 10: Time to allow the application to go into the idle state

Figure 11: The Measure Idle Application phase

In the final phase of the Intel® Power Checker assessment, measurements are collected

when the application, workload and system are idle. When your workload is finished

and your application is either idle or has been closed, click the “Start” button. Intel®

Power Checker gives the system 15 seconds to reach the idle state before starting the testing.

During the assessment the “Start” button in disabled. When the test is complete, the “Start” button is enabled once again.

When the data collection period has ended, the “Next” button is enabled, allowing you to proceed to the final screen, the View Results page.

Getting Started


View Results

Figure 12: The View Results page

The View Results screen (Figure 12) provides basic information about the software assessment, as follows:

Processor Information: The type of processor that was detected.

Power Source Information: The type and model of the power source that was

used. For the power meter device, the type would be POWER METER and name

would be the power meter device name like Yokogawa WT210. For the system

that can provide the power consumption information, the type would be Platform and the name would also be PLATFORM. Finally, for the battery, the type would

be Battery and the name would be the battery model number.

Elapsed Time for the Three Phases: The exact number of seconds that each of the phases lasted.

Energy Consumption for the Three Phases: The rate that the battery was discharged during each of the three phases.

Average C3 State Residency: The percentage of time that the system was in the C3 state during the data collection period.

Platform Timer Period: The number of milliseconds that the platform timer

collected.

Features


3. Features

3.1 Assessment Environment Information

Information on the software assessment environment is reported in the Tool Report File created during the assessment.

3.2 Immediate Results

Each time you use Intel® Power Checker to run an assessment on an application, the

results are available on the View Results screen immediately after the assessment is

done. This data is also recorded in a Tool Report File that is generated during every

assessment run.

3.3 Log Results to File

The Intel® Power Checker directory includes the following folders:

A \Reports folder with report files containing the result of a sampling session.

A \Log folder with log files generated during the assessment process. These files can be used for debug purposes when needed.

Intel® Power Checker generates default file names for the log and report files. The

following pattern is used to generate the file names:

Log File: iPChecker-log-MMDDYYYY-HHMMSS.log

Report File: iPChecker-MMDDYYYY-HHMMSS.xml

3.4 Submit Results

At the View Results page there is a “Submit Results” button. When users click this button, it will open a web page to allow users to upload the results.

Troubleshooting


4. Understand Tool Results

This section is designed to help you understand the data that is generated by the Intel®

Power Checker.

Figure 13 shows an excerpt from the XML-based Tool Report File. In this example, the assessment analysis has successfully completed.

<summary> - <processor>

<vendor>GenuineIntel</vendor>

<name>Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T9600 2.80GHz</name>

<mhz>2793.00</mhz>

<sockets>1</sockets>

<cores>2</cores>

<logicals>2</logicals>

<hyper-threading>No</hyper-threading>

</processor>

<power-source> <power-source-type>BATTERY</power-source-type>

<power-source-name>00016 2009/05/08Hewlett-

PackardPrimary</power-source-name> </power-source>

Figure 13: Information Excerpt from the Tool Report File

The above Tool Report File fragment contains the information statistics for the assessment. The processor information is listed first, followed by the processor speed.

The number of physical and logical cores for the processor is also noted. If hyper-

threading is enabled, that is also shown.

Power source information is listed next. Figure 12 shows the case when the battery is the power source. It is followed by the power source name which, in this case, is the

battery model.

../ktnn1/work/2011/Power-checker-2.0/Doc/FRS/XML%20samples/iPChecker-report-10212011-133305.xml

Troubleshooting


- <platform-baseline>

<sampling-rate-ms>1000</sampling-rate-ms>

<elapsed-time-ms>30432</elapsed-time-ms>

<avg-energy-J>156.30</avg-energy-J>

<avg-c3-ms>30111.77</avg-c3-ms>

<avg-c3-percent>98.95</avg-c3-percent>

<avg-c3-transition-rate>98.95</avg-c3-transition-rate>

<platform-timer-period-ms>15.60</platform-timer-period-ms>

</platform-baseline>

Figure 14: Platform Baseline Excerpt from the Tool Report File

The measurements collected during the platform baseline phase of the assessment are listed next in the XML file. It shows the sampling rate (in milliseconds), the elapsed

time of data collection, the average energy consumption (in Joules), the average time spent in the C3 state (in milliseconds), the average percentage of time spent in the C3

state and the rate of transition to and from the C3 state. The final number is the

platform timer period in milliseconds.

<application-idle-behavior> <sampling-rate-ms>1000</sampling-rate-ms>



<avg-c3-ms>30117.63</avg-c3-ms>




</application-idle-behavior>

Figure 15: Application Idle Behavior Excerpt from the Tool Report File

The next section of the Tool Report File shows the same information as detailed above, but these numbers are recorded for the Idle Behavior phase.

- <application-workload-processing-behavior>

<sampling-rate-ms>1000</sampling-rate-ms>



<avg-c3-ms>30062.63</avg-c3-ms>




<min-platform-timer-period-ms>15.60</min-platform-timer-period-ms>

<max-platform-timer-period-ms>15.60</max-platform-timer-period-ms>

<app-reset-platform-timer-period>true</app-reset-platform-timer-period>

</application-workload-processing-behavior>

../../Users/ktnguye3/Documents/Intel%20Power%20Checker/reports/iPChecker-report-11292011-150315.xml

../../Users/ktnguye3/Documents/Intel%20Power%20Checker/reports/iPChecker-report-11292011-150315.xml

Troubleshooting


Figure 16: Application Workload Processing Excerpt from the Tool Report File

The next group of data includes the items noted in the previous 2 sections, but has some additional information as well. This data is collected during the workload

processing phase of the assessment.

In addition to the average platform timer period information, minimum and maximum period times are also recorded. I/O activities per second are listed as well as whether

the application reset the platform timer during its execution.

Troubleshooting


5. Troubleshooting

The Troubleshooting section is designed to help identify and solve issues that may arise

when using Intel® Power Checker.

5.1 Turning off Windows Indexing Service.

Problem: The User’s Guide suggests turning off Windows Indexing Service prior to getting the Baseline measurement. How do I do that?

Solution:

Turning off Windows Indexing Service in Windows XP

Follow these steps to turn off Windows Indexing Service in Windows XP:

1) Right click “My Computer” and select “Manage”.

2) Select “Services and Applications” in the left-hand navigation box.

3) Double-click “Services” from the list now displayed in the right-hand box.

4) Select “Indexing Service” from the list of services displayed.

5) Right click and select “Properties” from the drop down menu.

6) When the Properties window appears, select the “Disabled” option as the Startup Type.

7) If the service is shows as “Started”, click the “Stop” button.

8) Click “Apply” to make the changes, then click “OK” to close the window.

Turning off Windows Indexing Service in Windows Vista

Follow these steps to turn off Windows Indexing Service in Windows Vista:

1) Click on “Start” and type in “services.msc” into the search box at the bottom of the menu.

2) Find “Windows Search” in the list of services and double click to open the “Properties” box.

3) Change the “Startup Type” to “Disabled”.

4) If the service is “Started” click the “Stop” button to stop the service.

5) Click “Apply” to make the change, then “OK” to exit the window.

Turning off Windows Indexing Service in Windows 7

Follow these steps to turn off Windows Indexing Service in Windows 7:

Troubleshooting


1) Click on “Start” and select “Control Panel”.

2) In the Control Panel, switch the “view by” choice to “Large Icons”.

3) Scroll down and select the “Programs and Features” option.

4) In the left-hand pane of the Programs and Features window, select “Turn Windows features on and off”.

5) Scroll down in the window that appears and find the “Windows Search” option. Uncheck the box next to “Windows Search” to turn off the feature.

6) Click “Yes” in the pop up window to confirm that you want to turn the feature off.

7) Click “OK” in the Windows Features window. Wait while Windows completes the change.

8) A message box indicates that a restart of the system is required.

5.2 C3 Residency State

Problem: The Baseline C-State measurements I got are lower than those for the Idle Behavior measurement. Why is that?

Solution:

If the average C3 residency state for the Baseline measurement is less than the C3 residency state for the Idle Behavior measurement, then there may be other processes

that are affecting these measurements. Try turning off all unnecessary processes such

as virus scans, media players, internet browsers, etc. Check the process list on Task Manager to see if there are any intermittent active processes occurring during the

Baseline measurement. Close your application and rerun Intel® Power Checker.

Problem: The Baseline, Idle Behavior, and Workload C-State measurements I got are 0.00%. What should I do to fix this?

Solution: If you run Intel® Power Checker and the View Results table shows values of 0.0% under “Avg. C3 state residency, %” then your system may not be configured to allow the CPU to enter C3 (idle) state. To resolve, verify whether your system BIOS configuration utility allows manual enabling and disabling of the CPU "C States", usually found under the CPU Configuration or Power Configuration headings in the BIOS settings. If you find

the capability is disabled, then modify the BIOS setting to ALLOW (i.e. enable) the CPU

to go into and out of C-states, then re-run the Intel® Power Checker Software

Assessment Tool.

Troubleshooting


5.3 Record a Valid Test Run

Problem: Retesting of all three measurements without closing Intel® Power Checker results in loss of data. The tool only creates one Tool Report File per session.

Solution:

In order to produce a valid test we recommend users adopt the following test methodologies:

a. Complete the test, which contains three measurements (Baseline, Workload and

Idle Behavior) in as short a time period as possible. Ensure that the delay between any two measurements is less than five (5) minutes. Example: After taking the

Baseline measurement, please proceed immediately to the next step to take the Workload measurements.

b. You can use the back button to go back and perform the measurements for

Workload and Idle Behavior. However, if you have to go back and perform the Baseline measurement again, we recommend that you exit and restart Intel® Power Checker.

5.4 Unexpected Platform Timer Results

Problem: The Platform Timer results you are seeing are not what you expected to see.

Solution:

If you see that the platform timer period value for the Baseline measurement is other

than 15.63, we recommend that you restart Intel® Power Checker and rerun your test.

Ensure that there are no unnecessary processes running while performing the Baseline measurement.

5.5 Select a Nonexistent Power Meter Device

Problem: Users selects a power meter device from the drop-down list in the first screen while it does not exist or while it is not yet connected to the system .

Solution:

Intel® Power Checker will show an error message as shown in figure 17. Click the “OK”

button to exit.

Troubleshooting


Figure 17: Show errors when selecting a nonexistent power meter device