Patent ID: 7574708

Claim:
A computer-implemented method, said method comprising the steps of: ascertaining a respective at least one workload measure corresponding to a first processor and to a second processor of a computer apparatus, said first processor having first memory associated therewith and said second processor having second memory associated therewith, wherein said first processor and first memory form a first node of said computer apparatus and wherein said second processor and said second memory form a second node of said computer apparatus, wherein said respective at least one workload measure is derived from a respective first quantitative value representing a respective desired workload for the node containing the corresponding processor and a respective second quantitative value representing a respective current workload experienced by the node containing the corresponding processor, said respective current workloads representing the actual distribution of work within said computer apparatus; and notifying a service provider of said respective workload, said service provider providing a plurality of kernel services of an operating system of said computer apparatus, said plurality of kernel services performed by a plurality of service provider threads, each said service provider thread being executable on any of said first processor and said second processor and being associated with a respective at least one processor, each said service provider thread being preferentially dispatched for execution to a processor with which the service provider thread is associated, said notifying a service provider permitting said service provider to adjust service provider resources by changing a processor association of at least one service provider thread of said plurality of service provider threads according to said respective workload, said service provider providing said plurality of kernel services to entities that execute on said first and second processors.