[Zope-dev] Increased system CPU cycles under heavy load?

[Dieter Maurer]

Erik Stephens writes:
 > Does anyone know what kinds of operations fall under 'system'?  Task
 > switching, paging, these kinds of things?
The computer can execute instruction being part of the operating
system (usually priviledged code) or of user processes.
The first would be accounted for as system, the latter as
user time.

System time includes (as you expect) scheduling, but
also memory management (swapping in and out, paging in and out),
IO activity, inter-process communication and all other operating
system services.


Dieter