Patent ID: 7386737

Claim:
A method comprising: invoking a first thermal adjustment if a temperature of a processor exceeds a threshold temperature level, said first thermal adjustment comprising calculating a first set of desired values of frequency and voltage of the processor; selecting a first bin of frequency and voltage values from a voltage-frequency table having two or more bins, wherein each bin includes at least one voltage value and at least one frequency value; and decreasing a power of the processor to a first power level for a first predetermined time period, said first power level based on said first bin of frequency and voltage values; increasing the frequency and voltage levels to an upper bound of frequency and voltage values for a second predetermined time period if the temperature of the processor does not exceed the threshold temperature level during the first predetermined time period, wherein the upper bound of values is included in a second bin of the voltage-frequency table; increasing the upper bound of frequency and voltage values to a set of values included in a third bin of the voltage-frequency table if the temperature of the processor does not exceed the threshold temperature during the second predetermined time period; and invoking a second thermal adjustment if the temperature of the processor exceeds the threshold temperature level within a third predetermined time period after the invocation of the first or second thermal adjustments, said second thermal adjustment comprising calculating a second set of desired values of frequency and voltage of the processor; selecting a fourth bin of frequency and voltage values from the voltage-frequency table; and decreasing the power of the processor to a second power level for the third predetermined time period, said second power level based on said fourth bin of frequency and voltage values.