MODIFYING AN OPERATING FREQUENCY IN A PROCESSOR

A processor includes a plurality of processing engines and a throttling circuit. The throttling circuit may be to: detect an execution of a pause instruction in a first processing engine operating at a first frequency level; in response to the execution of the pause instruction, increment a cycle counter to count a number of cycles that the first processing engine is paused by executing the pause instruction; and in response to a determination that the cycle counter has reached a first threshold level, change an operating frequency of the first processing engine from the first frequency level to a second frequency level, wherein the second frequency level is lower than the first frequency level.