Method and apparatus for external processor thermal control

Abstract

A system and method for throttling a slave component of a computer system to reduce an overall temperature of the computing system upon receiving a first signal is disclosed. The first signal may be from a master component indicating that a temperature for the master component has exceeded its threshold temperature. The slave component or the master component may be a central processing unit, a graphics memory and controller hub, or a central processing unit memory controller hub. The slave component may send a second signal to indicate that a temperature for the slave component has exceeded its temperature. The master component would then initiate throttling of the master component to reduce the overall temperature of the computing system. The master component may be throttled to a degree less than the slave component. A first component may be designated the master component and the second component may be designated the slave component based on a selection policy. The selection policy may be received from a user through a graphical user interface. The selection policy may be based on an action being performed by the computing system.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.