Patent ID: 7536571

Claim:
A computer program product in a computer recordable-type media for maintaining operation of a data processing system in the event of a degraded system cooling condition, the computer program product comprising: first instructions that receive a first temperature of a processor; second instructions that, responsive to receipt of the first temperature, identify the degraded system cooling condition; third instructions that, responsive to the second instructions identifying the degraded system cooling condition, throttle a frequency and operational voltage of the processor, wherein throttling the frequency and operational voltage of the processor comprises: reducing a frequency of the processor by a first frequency increment; responsive to reducing the frequency by a first frequency increment, reducing an operational voltage of the processor by a first voltage increment; responsive to reducing the operational voltage of the processor by the first voltage increment, acquiring a temperature of the processor; comparing the temperature with a stable throttling temperature range; responsive to determining that the temperature is not within the stable throttling temperature range, further reducing the frequency of the processor by a second frequency increment; responsive to reducing the frequency by the second frequency increment, further reducing the operational voltage of the processor by a second voltage increment; responsive to reducing the frequency of the processor by the second frequency increment and reducing the operational voltage of the processor by the second voltage increment, incrementing a counter variable representing a number of second frequency increment and second voltage increment reductions performed; and wherein the first frequency increment, second frequency increment, first voltage increment, and second voltage increment are specified in a processor throttling routine controlled by system firmware.