Patent ID: 8707061

Claim:
A method of managing processor cores within a portable computing device (PCD) having at least three processor cores, the method comprising: determining whether the PCD is docked with a PCD docking station when the PCD is powered on; energizing a first processor core in response to determining that the PCD is not docked with the PCD docking station; energizing the first processor core, a second processor core, and a third processor core in response to determining that the PCD is docked with the PCD docking station; determining a first application processor requirement when an application is selected in response to determining that the PCD is not docked with the PCD docking station; determining whether the first application processor requirement requires more than one processor core prior to execution of the application; and energizing the second processor core in response to determining that the first application processor requirement requires more than one processor core prior to execution of the application.