Method and devices for controlling operations of a central processing unit

A data processing system for processing data messages received from multiple user terminals over one or more data networks, the data processing system comprising:

• a processor;
• an input/output (I/O) range;
• multiple processing layers configured to run on the processor, the multiple processing layers including:
• an application layer, including an application, configured when run on the processor to process data messages from the I/O range;
• a hardware layer configured when run on the processor to communicate with hardware devices including the user terminals;
• and
• an operating system kernel layer configured when run on the processor to provide data communications between the application layer and the hardware layer,
• wherein the application layer is configured when run on the processor to bypass the operating system kernel layer when communicating with the hardware layer and to poll the I/O range for data messages for input to and processing by the application,
• wherein the processor is associated with a nominal clock frequency, and
• wherein the application layer is configured when run on the processor to poll the I/O range at different frequencies depending on polling results.