Allocating Computing System Power Levels Responsive to Service Level Agreements

A system for initiating a task in a computer system, the system comprising:

• a computer memory;
• and
• an instruction processing element in communication with the computer memory, the instruction processing element comprising an instruction fetching element for fetching instructions from memory and one or more execution elements for executing fetched instructions;
• wherein the computer system is configured to perform a method comprising:
• receiving a task for execution by the processor;
• receiving a status of the task relative to a target service level;
• determining a current power state of the processor;
• initiating execution of the task on the processor in response to the status indicating that the task is meeting the target service level and to determining that the current power state is a low power state;
• and
• in response to the status indicating that the task is not meeting the target service level and to determining that the current power state is the low power state:
• determining if the processor can be moved into a high power state;
• moving the processor into the high power state in response to determining that the processor can be moved into the high power state;
• and
• initiating execution of the task on the processor in response to moving the processor into the high power state.

A computer implemented method for initiating a task in a computer system, the method comprising:

• receiving a task for execution by a processor;
• receiving a status of the task relative to a target service level;
• determining a current power state of the processor;
• initiating execution of the task on the processor in response to the status indicating that the task is meeting the target service level and to determining that the current power state is a low power state;
• and
• in response to the status indicating that the task is not meeting the target service level and to determining that the current power state is the low power state:
• determining if the processor can be moved into a high power state;
• moving the processor into the high power state in response to determining that the processor can be moved into the high power state;
• and
• initiating execution of the task on the processor in response to moving the processor into the high power state.