If there is something on the CPU thats waiting for outside resources (such as interrupts or I/O) then it's possible to queue up additional requests while the CPU is idle. CPU is also based on scheduling priorities as well. If something has a higher priority over something waiting in the queue then the queued item will remain. The swapping of the context on the DMA controller also takes time, but that's not CPU time. Things like busmastering will also take burded off of the CPU but then it becomes a bottleneck. There are just so many reasons why the CPU can be idle while something is waiting in the queue. Hope that helps, Gary ________________________________
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] on behalf of Brian Steele Sent: Tue 2/22/2005 2:14 PM To: 'Corey Goldberg'; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [mrtg] Re: Load vs CPU How is it possible for the CPU to be less than 100% when there are jobs in the queue? Shouldn't the OS automatically spawn new processes? If I have 50% CPU utilization, but a high # of processes waiting, what does this mean? Or does it differ from one OS to another. Brian -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Corey Goldberg Sent: Tuesday, February 22, 2005 4:01 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [mrtg] Re: Load vs CPU Load is the average number of processes in the CPU's run queue (waiting for time on the processor), whereas CPU utilization is the percentage of CPU cycles that are currently utilized for doing work. Both can be interesting to watch and can tell you different things about the nature of a system's processing health -Corey Goldberg -----Original Message----- From: Brian Steele <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Feb 22, 2005 1:54 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [mrtg] Load vs CPU Please excuse my ignorance.Can someone explain the difference between average load and CPU utilization? Brian -- Unsubscribe mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archive http://www.ee.ethz.ch/~slist/mrtg FAQ http://faq.mrtg.org Homepage http://www.mrtg.org WebAdmin http://www.ee.ethz.ch/~slist/lsg2.cgi -- Unsubscribe mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archive http://www.ee.ethz.ch/~slist/mrtg FAQ http://faq.mrtg.org Homepage http://www.mrtg.org WebAdmin http://www.ee.ethz.ch/~slist/lsg2.cgi -- Unsubscribe mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archive http://www.ee.ethz.ch/~slist/mrtg FAQ http://faq.mrtg.org Homepage http://www.mrtg.org WebAdmin http://www.ee.ethz.ch/~slist/lsg2.cgi -- Unsubscribe mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archive http://www.ee.ethz.ch/~slist/mrtg FAQ http://faq.mrtg.org Homepage http://www.mrtg.org WebAdmin http://www.ee.ethz.ch/~slist/lsg2.cgi
