Load averages are a measure of the amount of processing a
computer system is currently performing, usually in the form of a scalar and as some variation on a
percentage. They come in different forms in the cases of differing
operating systems.
- On Unix and Unix-like systems the load average is generally given as three scalar numbers, representing the average number of processes ready to run in the last one, five and fifteen minutes.
- On Windows systems, a percentage of CPU load is generally used, with 100% being full CPU utilization.