From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon May 25 19:31:24 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DF96A1065689 for ; Mon, 25 May 2009 19:31:24 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from glen.j.barber@gmail.com) Received: from mail-bw0-f165.google.com (mail-bw0-f165.google.com [209.85.218.165]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5F5598FC1B for ; Mon, 25 May 2009 19:31:24 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from glen.j.barber@gmail.com) Received: by bwz9 with SMTP id 9so3398608bwz.43 for ; Mon, 25 May 2009 12:31:23 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:mime-version:received:in-reply-to:references :date:message-id:subject:from:to:cc:content-type :content-transfer-encoding; bh=GzlgKa90RnMsEnUcf+CyMVdSnr0YhCc5vqReDftWlUE=; b=WEpdw3Ue/0KAO0BED0bOpSMy1m5ccOP0cFBmgfL9lV9jWuSiRvST2feI94mrnKEH6Y bwYp0ukA+6goAoONQ5AzomEjMNL3FVD5x9LBmNDAExMUOvb7mOQ5AXBKPYoToaeLwfK4 VmCztQTLJpJj5mpIwFD1ZXdSBAr4HifpGh3NI= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id:subject:from:to :cc:content-type:content-transfer-encoding; b=L+9+Em/1gdfLrsQNag7codOcxLhKoUUOnOEgq5lahtk57gWxUXSS3AlB5kE8xNaSqd s74ctcomDNAOfCZ8J6tPwGaLHJCiycSPecU3sWEE5mU29jKUwDOjAhiKKzKr4xbTZ+iU jlAx7h/N6L5tMPSR4G3srsthh9ItnriNsDulY= MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.204.71.82 with SMTP id g18mr7261176bkj.120.1243279883236; Mon, 25 May 2009 12:31:23 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: References: <200905241315.n4ODFB96007801@mp.cs.niu.edu> <4A1A58FA.60303@boosten.org> <1932D812-03CF-48AF-A306-669C39862EB7@boosten.org> Date: Mon, 25 May 2009 15:31:23 -0400 Message-ID: <4ad871310905251231x8c61c93j97bf364ebea8d533@mail.gmail.com> From: Glen Barber To: Wojciech Puchar Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org, Peter Boosten Subject: Re: How can this 'top' command output make sense? Load over 7 and total CPU use ~5% X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 25 May 2009 19:31:25 -0000 On Mon, May 25, 2009 at 3:24 PM, Wojciech Puchar wrote: >> >> The CPU will perform the same, whether at 10% utilization, or at 100% >> utilization, the system however won't. >> That's the difference between load and utilization. > > still don't understand you. > > CPU will not perform the same at 10% utilization, it will perform 10 times > less than at 100% utilization. > You are assuming this based on what? > CPU load == CPU utilization == how big percentage of time CPU (or CPUs by > average) are doing anything except being in idle loop or hlt/waiting for > interrupt. > it's exactly the same words in that context. > Not true. top(1) can fully utilize the CPU. Doing so does not put the system under full load. > > load average is how much processes (by average) is not doing calculations > because something is not yet available and depends of computer resources(*) > - like CPU time, disk I/O results etc.. > > (*) - for example waiting on tty read is not calculated to load average as > it's depends on human not computer. What? -- Glen Barber