Patent ID: 8069354

Claim:
A method of controlling power consumption of an integrated circuit, said method comprising: executing an operating system computer program adapted to execute one or more application computer programs wherein the operating system computer program selects from among the application computer programs for execution by a processor included in the integrated circuit and wherein a first of the application computer programs, when selected by the operating system computer program, is operable to store event data characterizing one or more parameters associated with operation of the integrated circuit in an event data store and to initiate an application specific policy for controlling power consumption of a portion of the integrated circuit; triggering execution of response code, selected by the application specific policy, to read the event data from the event data store and in dependence upon the event data to generate one or more power control commands; and in response to the one or more power control commands, controlling power consumption of a portion of said integrated circuit; wherein said controlling power consumption comprises controlling an operating parameter associated with a hardware unit in one of a plurality of predefined zones of the integrated circuit, whereby the hardware unit is controlled by varying one or both of an operating voltage and a clock speed, and wherein power consumption of separate ones of the plurality of predefined zones is separately controllable.