Characterization and Optimization

Servers have a wide variety of different hardware and software configuration options. These include simple options such as enabling and disabling a feature. It also includes more advanced options that allow operators to control the usage conditions, functionality, or other feature behavior. The individual features discussed in this book are primarily for power management—for example, P-states, C-states, link, and device states. Servers also have a large number of configurable features that are designed for performance including Turbo, memory prefetchers, or memory controller page policy. In addition, servers have a large number of configurable features that are designed to add functionality, such as virtualization; security; or reliability, availability, and serviceability (RAS) features.