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'''Load average''' is a traditional UNIX metric. Its value is the average
number of processes that are either in a '''runnable ''' or '''uninterruptable ''' stateduring a particular time period. The three numbers shown are load averages forthe last 1, 5, and 15 minutes.
A process in a '''runnable ''' state(shown with status of '''R''' in top utility)is either using the CPU or waiting to use the CPU. A process in '''uninterruptable'''state (shown with status of '''D''' in top utility) is waiting for some I/O access, eg waiting for disk. The averages are taken over the three time intervals: 1, 5 and 15 minutes. Load averagesare not normalized for the number of CPUs in a system, so a load average
of 1 means a single CPU system is loaded all the time while on a 4
CPU system it means it was idle 75% of the time.
