Patent ID: 7853812

Claim:
A method for reducing the amount of power used by a data processing system, the computer implemented method comprising: determining, by a controller, an operating condition for the data processing system, the operating condition being selected from a group comprising an operating temperature, an amount of processing power used, an amount of battery power used, a number of applications operating at one time, and types of applications operating at one time; responsive to the operating condition being above a threshold, switching, by the controller, an application to a low power path; responsive to the operating condition being below the threshold and the application operating at the low power path, switching, by the controller, the application to a normal operating path, wherein the application includes the low power path and the normal operating path; responsive to the operating condition still being above the threshold after the application switches to the first low power path, switching the application to a next low power path, wherein the next low power path uses less power than a previous low power path; determining whether the next low power path is a lowest low power path, wherein the lowest low power path uses a lowest amount of power among the plurality of operating paths; and responsive to the next low power path being the lowest low power path and the operating condition is above the threshold, notifying a user to investigate further.