Patent ID: 7694055

Claim:
A method comprising: determining one or more currently idle processors from a plurality of processors; initially receiving an interrupt, only by a controller separate from the plurality of processors such that none of the plurality of processors receives the interrupt before the controller receives the interrupt, the controller being an entity other than a processor; and, delivering the interrupt, by the controller separate from the plurality of processors, to one of the currently idle processors for processing, comprising: where more than one of the plurality of processors is currently idle, selecting in a round-robin manner one of the currently idle processors to which to deliver the interrupt for processing, the one of the currently idle processors being selected from all the currently idle processors, such that where the interrupt is a first interrupt and such that the currently idle processors consist of a first currently idle processor, a second currently idle processor, and a third currently idle processor, the first interrupt is delivered to the first currently idle processor, a second interrupt is delivered to the second currently idle processor, a third interrupt is delivered to the third currently idle processor, a fourth interrupt is delivered to the first currently idle processor, and a fifth interrupt is delivered to the second currently idle processor, wherein just the one of the currently idle processors to which the interrupt was delivered receives the interrupt, and no other of the plurality of processors ever receives the interrupt.