8/9     How is the load average related to the %cpu utilization? I have observ
        on my machine a high load average despite low cpu utilization.
        \_ load avg is a decayed avg of the number of runnable processes.
           %cpu utilization is the fraction of busy time (* 100).  you can
           have a load of 1 and a %cpu of 100 if the load stays at 1 long
           enough.  the reverse is less likely.  it means that you had a real
           large number of procs become runnable for a short period of time.
           -dpetrou
           \_ What this sounds like to me is that the load average is based
              on the number of runnable procs in priority que the scheduler
              uses. The deeper the priority que the higher the load average,
              right?
                \_ Yes.  Also note that load avg on an SMP machine is different
                   than a single cpu.  A quad cpu machine with a load of X has
                   4x as many jobs queued as a single cpu box with load X.