# Power consumption in Postgres 9.2

DevFeed: [Power consumption in Postgres 9.2](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/power-consumption-in-postgres-9-2-33641.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://pgeoghegan.blogspot.com/2012/01/power-consumption-in-postgres-92.html>)

Author: Peter Geoghegan (noreply@blogger.com)

Published: 2012-01-29T00:00:00Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Peter Geoghegan's blog](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/peter-geoghegan-s-blog.md>)

Topics: [PostgreSQL](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/postgresql.md>), [Database](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/database.md>), [cpu](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/cpu.md>), [paas and iaas](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/paas-and-iaas.md>), [cloud-computing](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/cloud-computing.md>), [Embedded Software Dev](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/embedded-software-dev.md>)

Tags: [cloud-computing](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/cloud-computing.md>), [cpu](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/cpu.md>), [database](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/database.md>), [embedded-systems](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/embedded-systems.md>), [postgresql](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/postgresql.md>), [processors](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/processors.md>), [services](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/services.md>)

## AI overview

The article discusses efforts to reduce idle CPU wake-ups in PostgreSQL as part of the 4CaaSt research project. It explains why wake-ups affect power consumption in virtualized server environments and reports a measured idle rate of 11.5 wake-ups per second for an unconfigured PostgreSQL 9.1 server.

## Source excerpt

One of the issues of major concern to CPU vendors is optimising the power consumption of their devices. In a world where increasingly, computing resources are purchased in terms of fairly abstract units of work, and where, when selecting the location of a major data-centre, the local price of a kilowatt hour is likely to be weighed just as heavily as the wholesale price of bandwidth, this is quite understandable. Globally, data centres consumed between 1.1 and 1.5 percent of electricity in 2010 (Source: Koomey). The economic and ecological importance of minimizing that number is fairly obvious. The broad trend towards increasing amounts of computing being performed within large data centres, with consolidated infrastructure, sold as a service rather than a product is undeniable. Of course, the term "cloud computing" is often applied to this phenomenon. That's a term that I try to avoid, as it's fairly ambiguous. There has been considerable effort to reduce wake-ups when idle in software in general, including everything from web browsers to word processors, which is related to the increasing importance of mobile and embedded platforms. However, this effort is most pronounced among developers of software that is expected to be deployed in virtualised environment on many servers, as wake-ups prevent CPUs from entering various idle states that allow them to save electricity, and when these wakeups are multiplied by thousands of VM instances, they add up very quickly. As part of 4CaaSt, a research project funded by the European Commission's Seventh Framework programme, that brings together members of industry and academia with the collective goal of producing an innovative platform-as-as-service offering, I spent time reducing the idle wake-ups per second in PostgreSQL. Postgres services firm 2ndQuadrant, where I work as a database architect, has had the development of several PostgreSQL features sponsored by 4CaaSt in furtherance of that goal, of which this is only one.