Patent ID: 7454631

Claim:
A method for controlling power consumption in a multiprocessor chip, comprising: respectively assigning a thermal control bit to each possible thread of the multiprocessor chip, such that each possible thread has a unique thermal control bit; setting a state of each thermal control bit to indicate whether or not the thread to which the thermal control bit is assigned is to be idled upon identification of an imminent overheat condition within the multiprocessor chip, wherein the state of each thermal control bit is set according to a thermal management policy based on priorities respectively assigned to each possible thread of the multiprocessor chip; identifying an imminent overheat condition within the multiprocessor chip; and idling each active thread in the multiprocessor chip according to its thermal control bit setting in response to identifying the imminent overheat condition, wherein idling of a given active thread in the multiprocessor chip prevents the given active thread from issuing any further instructions until operation of the given idled active thread resumes, wherein idling each active thread in the multiprocessor chip according to its thermal control bit setting in response to identifying the imminent overheat condition is performed without software intervention.