Patent ID: 7836284

Claim:
A method comprising: monitoring a processor to detect a plurality of sensed conditions, wherein the processor supports a first processing mode for processing data of a first width and a second processing mode for processing data of a second width, wherein the first width exceeds the second width, and wherein the plurality of sensed conditions includes: a plurality of instructions at an instruction queue comprising a first plurality of instructions corresponding to the first width of data, the first plurality of instructions satisfying a level; and an operating temperature of the processor being below a threshold; when the plurality of sensed condition is detected: selecting the first processing mode; and continuing in the first processing mode until at least one of the plurality of sensed conditions is no longer detected; and when at least one of the plurality of sensed conditions is not detected: selecting the second processing mode; selectively disabling at least one instruction execution unit used to support processing data of the first width in the first processing mode; instructions corresponding to the second width of data; and continuing in the second processing mode until the plurality of sensed conditions is detected.