Patent ID: 8855969

Claim:
A method comprising: determining whether validation of at least one of a plurality of previously validated processors on a first system produced data usable for computing a validation start frequency of an unvalidated processor on a second system, wherein the validation start frequency is between a nominal operating frequency and a system maximum operating frequency of the unvalidated processor; if validation of at least one of the plurality of previously validated processors on the first system produced data usable for validating the unvalidated processor on the second system then, identifying a subset of the plurality of previously validated processors that were validated on the first system; computing, by a guard band validation unit, the validation start frequency associated with the unvalidated processor based, at least in part, on system parametric data associated with the subset of the plurality of previously validated processors that were validated on the first system, wherein the validation start frequency indicates an operating frequency associated with the unvalidated processor at which to initiate validation of a guard band frequency for the unvalidated processor, wherein the system parametric data associated with the subset of the plurality of previously validated processors comprises operating parameters recorded during validation of each of the subset of the plurality of previously validated processors when the previously validated processor is coupled with the first system; if validation of none of the plurality of previously validated processors on the first system produced data usable for validating the unvalidated processor on the second system then, computing, by the guard band validation unit, the validation start frequency associated with the unvalidated processor based, at least in part, on tester parametric data associated with the unvalidated processor, wherein the tester parametric data associated with the unvalidated processor comprises nominal operating parameters associated with the unvalidated processor when the unvalidated processor is not coupled with the second system; and initiating validation of the guard band frequency for the unvalidated processor at the validation start frequency.