Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!amdahl!pyramid!romain
From: romain@pyramid.pyramid.com (Romain Kang)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Record High Load Average
Summary: you, too, can set your own records
Message-ID: <70329@pyramid.pyramid.com>
Date: 16 May 89 04:27:34 GMT
References: <1704@ucsd.EDU>
Reply-To: romain@pyramid.pyramid.com (Romain Kang)
Organization: Pyramid Technology Corp., Mountain View, CA
Lines: 29

Let's take an absurd example:

main(argc, argv)
    char **argv;
{
    int nproc = atoi(*++argv);
    while (nproc-- > 0) {
        switch (fork()) {
            case 0:
                (void)setpriority(0, getpid(), 19);
                for (;;);
            case -1:
                pause();
            default:
                break;
        }
    }
    pause();
}

Can you hear the sales rep now?
"This box gives excellent response even with load averages over 500..."

Conversely, I'm sure much of the comp.unix.wizards readership has seen
page thrashers that render vanilla 4.2 BSD systems useless with load
averages under 1.0.

I can hear you screaming, "But that isn't what I'm running here!"
Is it any wonder that system benchmarking is considered a black art?