Patent ID: 7490234

Claim:
A method for configuring a computing system having a plurality of tunable parameters, the method comprising the steps of: formulating a performance of the computing system as a function of at least two of the plurality of tunable parameters; identifying an optimal selling for the computing system as a selling that maximizes the function, using a smart hill climbing method, where the optimal setting yields a set of values for the at least two of the plurality of tunable parameters; and outputting the optimal setting for configuration of the computing system, wherein the smart hill climbing method comprises: performing a global search guided by a correlation between the performance of the computing system and the at least two of the plurality of tunable parameters; and performing a local search on an initial candidate point identified by said global search, wherein the initial candidate point represents a first possible set of values for the at least two of the plurality of tunable parameters, and wherein at least one of the global and local searching steps comprises the steps of: establishing a local search neighborhood around the initial candidate point; generating a plurality of samples from within the local search neighborhood; updating information regarding the performance of the computing system, based on the plurality of samples generated; and processing the plurality of samples to generate a second candidate point, the second candidate point representing a second possible set of values for the at least two of the plurality of tunable parameters, wherein the step of processing the plurality of samples further comprises the steps of: constructing at least one quadratic fitting curve based on the generated samples, wherein each of the at least one quadratic fitting curve is constructed for each dimension; identifying a minimal point according to each of the at least one quadratic fitting curve; and combining the minimal points for all dimensions to generate the second candidate point.