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From: Sean Chittenden <sean@chittenden.org>
Date: Thu, 2 Dec 2004 17:51:45 -0800
To: Jeff Behl <jbehl@fastclick.com>
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Subject: Re: %cpu in system - squid performance in FreeBSD 5.3
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> but the % system time can fluctuate up to 60 at times.  My question is
> if this is about the type of performance I could expect, or if people
> have seen better.

I don't know about other people, but I suspect you're running into lock 
contention.  Try using a post 5.3 snapshot (something from RELENG_5) 
since alc@ has set debug.mpsafevm=1, which lets many calls to the VM 
run without GIANT, which I suspect is your problem and why the system 
usage is all over the place.  -sc

-- 
Sean Chittenden