Improved scheduling behavior for P4 "Hyperthreaded" CPUs Note: HT CPUs do _not_ require this patch. It is an optimization. The O(1) scheduler load balancer works to optimally distribute the process load across all available CPUs. In symmetric-multithreading (SMT) CPUs such as Intel P4s with hyperthreading (HT) enabled, all processors are not created equal. If possible, it is ideal to schedule processes onto fully unused processor packages (e.g. both virtual processors idle). This patch implements a new balancing policy in the load balancer to better distribute load on these systems. It has no effect on UP or non-x86 systems. On SMP x86 but non-HT machines, there is a small overhead but no change in behavior. Robert Love