A portable measurement system for power profiling of processing units

• A survey of power measurement systems for evaluating computer energy performance.
• Design steps, hardware and software descriptions of the proposed measurement system.
• The calibration procedure of the proposed power measurement system is presented.
• The power consumption has been measured by running five benchmark tests.

The paper deals with the design and the metrologic characterization of a portable power consumption measurement system capable to correlate the average power consumption of a central processing unit to processor performance. A survey of power measurement systems designed for the evaluation of computer energy performance is provided. The design steps for the proposed power measurement system and its comprehensive hardware and software descriptions are reported. Furthermore, a calibration procedure of the power measurement system is described. Five benchmark tests have been executed on an Intel Pentium D processor and the measured power loads are reported and discussed.