Patent ID: 7275012

Claim:
An automated method for validating a thermal solution for a computer platform, comprising: adjusting, through selective execution of thermal stress code on a platform processor, an amount of power dissipated by the processor to substantially match a target power dissipation level by performing the operations of: (a) executing an initial set of thermal stress code instructions; (b) determining a current amount of power dissipated by the processor; (c) comparing the current amount of power dissipated with the target power dissipation level; (d) selecting a new set of thermal stress code instructions to execute based on the result of operation (c), wherein execution of the new set of thermal stress code instructions increases the amount of power dissipated by the processor if the current amount of power dissipated is less than the target dissipation level or decreases the amount of power dissipated by the processor if the current amount of power dissipated is greater than the target dissipation level; (e) repeating operations (b)-(d) until a steady-state condition is reached, wherein the current amount of power dissipated by the processor substantially matches the target power dissipation level; determining if the processor is thermally overloaded while operating at the target power dissipation level; and outputting a thermal solution validation test result, wherein the thermal solution is validated if the processor is not thermally overloaded while operating at the target power dissipation level.