Patent ID: 8751841

Claim:
A data processing system, comprising: a memory; and a processing unit arranged to execute instructions stored in the memory, the instructions including: at least two applications, each application including instructions for scheduling an event at a future point in time, each event requiring the processing unit to be in an active mode; rescheduling instructions for: receiving from the two applications information about each event; determining that a power consumption of the processing unit can be reduced by the rescheduling of a first one of the events scheduled for a first point time, wherein the determining comprises comparing a period of time between the first event and a second one of the events with a period of time at which an amount of power saved in respective transitions from a low power mode to the active mode exceeds an additional amount of power required to switch to the to low power mode; and rescheduling the first event to a first new point in time in response to the determining that the power consumption of the processing unit can be reduced; and mode control instructions for controlling the processing unit to be in the active mode during a time interval which includes the first new point in time and to be in the low power mode during a period of time adjacent to the time interval in response to determining that the power consumption of the processing unit can be reduced.