A power model for routers: modeling Alpha 21364 and InfiniBand routers

As interconnection networks proliferate to many new applications, a low-latency high-throughput fabric is no longer sufficient. Applications are becoming power-constrained. We propose an architectural-level power model for interconnection network routers that will allow researchers and designers to easily factor in power when exploring architectural trade-offs. We applied our model to two commercial routers - the integrated Alpha 21364 router and the IBM 8-port 12X InfiniBand router and show that the different micro-architectures lead to vastly different power consumption and distribution estimates.