Record High Load Average

[Romain Kang]

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?