Patent ID: 8171320

Claim:
An information processing apparatus, including, a processing circuit that executes a program by operating at a set operating frequency, an input section that receives an input by a user's operation, basic software that has an operating-frequency requesting function for automatically changing the operating frequency of the processing circuit according to a processing request and setting of the basic software; a setting section that sets the operating frequency in the processing circuit, and a notification section that notifies the setting section of a plurality of operation allowing frequencies of the processing circuit, wherein the setting section selects an operating frequency according to a processing situation in the processing circuit from among the plurality of operation allowing frequencies received through notification from the notification section and sets the selected operating frequency in the processing circuit, and the processing circuit operates at the operating frequency set by the setting section, the information processing apparatus comprises: a measuring section that measures an elapsed time from the user's last operation in the input section, the notification section instructs, in response to an elapsed time longer than a predetermined threshold time being measured by the measuring section, the setting section to perform fixing to a specific low-operating frequency among the plurality of operation allowing frequencies, and instructs the setting section to release the fixing in response to the user's operation in the input section, and the setting section sets the low-operating frequency in the processing circuit, upon being instructed to perform the fixing to the low-operating frequency, and restarts setting of an operating frequency according to a processing situation in the processing circuit selected by the basic software from among the plurality of operation allowing frequencies, upon being instructed to release the fixing.