Power virus

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A power virus is a malicious computer program that executes specific machine code in order to reach the maximum CPU power dissipation (thermal energy output for the central processing unit). Computer cooling apparatus are designed to dissipate power up to the Thermal Design Power, rather than maximum power, and a power virus could cause the system to overheat; if it does not have logic to stop the processor, this may cause permanent damage.

Stability Test applications are similar programs which have the same effect as power viruses (high CPU usage) but stay under the user's control. They are used for testing CPUs, for example, when overclocking.^[1]

Different micro-architectures typically require different machine code to hit their maximum power. Examples of such machine code do not appear to be distributed in CPU reference materials.^{[citation needed]}