Patent ID: 8869152

Claim:
A method comprising: monitoring a real-time performance indicator of a system, wherein the real-time performance indicator is an amount of idle time of a processor of the system; determining a desired frequency in response to the real-time performance indicator; and selectively altering, by increasing or decreasing, an operating frequency of the processor in response to a comparison of i) the desired frequency and ii) the operating frequency of the processor, wherein the selectively altering the operating frequency of the processor includes, in response to the desired frequency being greater than the operating frequency of the processor, increasing the operating frequency of the processor to the desired frequency, and only in response to the desired frequency being less than the operating frequency of the processor by more than a predetermined value, decreasing the operating frequency of the processor to the desired frequency, wherein the predetermined value is non-zero, and wherein increasing the operating frequency of the processor to the desired frequency includes: initially using a coarse adjustment to adjust the operating frequency of the processor to a first frequency that is not less than the desired frequency, and subsequent to using the coarse adjustment, using a fine adjustment to adjust the operating frequency of the processor from the initial frequency to the desired frequency.