Operating System-Managed Interrupt Steering in Multiprocessor Systems

An article of manufacture comprising:

• a computer storage medium;
• computer program instructions stored on the computer storage medium which, when read from storage and processed by a processing device, instruct the processing device to perform a process comprising:
• receiving, into memory for an interrupt router, information about interrupts;
• the interrupt router determining a load on the computer due to interrupt handling by the plurality of processors for the interrupts;
• and
• the interrupt router assigning each interrupt source to a selected one of the plurality of processors, such selection being a function of the determined load so as to distribute the load among the processors.

A computer comprising:

• a plurality of processors, each processor being programmed to maintain information about interrupts handled on the processor, such information including an amount of processor time consumed due to executing the interrupt handler;
• an interrupt router executed on one or more of the plurality of processors, the interrupt router being configured to:
• receive the information about interrupts from the processors;
• determine a load on the computer due to interrupt handling by the plurality of processors for the interrupts;
• and
• assign each interrupt source to a selected one of the plurality of processors, such selection being a function of the determined load so as to distribute the load among the processors.