Autotuning based on frequency scaling toward energy efficiency of blockchain algorithms on graphics processing units

Abstract

Energy-efficient computing is especially important in the field of high-performance computing (HPC) on supercomputers. Therefore, automated optimization of energy efficiency during the execution of a compute-intensive program is desirable. In this article, a framework for the automatic improvement of the energy efficiency on NVIDIA GPUs (graphics processing units) using dynamic voltage and frequency scaling is presented. As application, the mining of crypto-currencies is used, since in this area energy efficiency is of particular importance. The framework first determines the energy-optimal frequencies for each available currency on each GPU of a computer automatically. Then, the mining is started, and during a monitoring phase it is ensured that always the most profitable currency is mined on each GPU, using optimal frequencies. Tests with different GPUs show that the energy efficiency, depending on the GPU and the currency, can be increased by up to 84% compared to the usage of the default frequencies. This in turn almost doubles the mining profit.