US Patent 7219245 Adaptive CPU clock management

A method and system for efficiently managing power consumption in a digital processor controls the CPU clock rate based on actual CPU workload by monitoring a measure of the CPU's activity to estimate the required clock speed consumption and adjusting the clock rate up or down to meet the actual estimated speed consumption. In an exemplary embodiment, a measure of the CPU's idleness is monitored and used, along with other parameters, to compute required clock speed changes.