Patent ID: 7971073

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for optimizing energy consumption for an active computing event, comprising: measuring a workload processing rate for a range of central processing unit (CPU) frequencies; and repeating the following steps until the event is no longer active: computing a run-time performance sensitivity factor; wherein said run-time performance sensitivity factor is computed relative to a change in CPU frequency; determining a target frequency based on said run-time performance sensitivity factor; wherein said target frequency comprises a minimum frequency having a predicted performance slowdown that does not exceed a maximum possible performance slowdown; setting the CPU frequency to said target frequency; and updating the workload processing rate for said target frequency; wherein energy consumption is optimized under a performance slowdown constraint; wherein the step of setting the CPU frequency to said target frequency comprises emulating said target frequency if said target frequency is unsupported; wherein said emulating step comprises setting said target frequency to a plurality of supported CPU frequencies according to a time ratio.