Patent ID: 7469355

Claim:
A method for dynamically overclocking a processor comprising: operating the processor at a clock rate to run an executable program by using the processor to carry out a plurality of instructions associated with the executable program; wherein the processor includes a plurality of configuration registers, each configuration register comprising an event mask field and a unit mask field, the event mask field being configured to store an identifier of an event within the processor to be monitored and the unit mask field being configured to store an identifier of a unit within the processor that corresponds to the event being monitored, and wherein each configuration register controls the operation of a counter register configured to maintain a count of a number of occurrences of an event; for each configuration register for which an event to be monitored has been defined, performing the following: (a) while the processor is running the executable program, repeatedly monitoring at least one activity measure associated with a specific operation of the processor associated with the event to be monitored, wherein the at least one activity measure is generated from within the processor; (b) evaluating the at least one activity measure to determine whether a predefined condition representing processor activity level is met; (c) if the predefined condition is met, dynamically adjusting the clock rate of the processor to modify execution speed at which the processor carries out instructions.