APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR MEASURING AND REPORTING PROCESSOR CAPACITY AND PROCESSOR USAGE IN A COMPUTER SYSTEM WITH PROCESSORS OF DIFFERENT SPEED AND/OR ARCHITECTURE

In a computer system that includes multiple processors, each processor in a computer system is assigned a processor class. Processor capacity and usage are monitored according to the class assigned to the processor. Capacity and usage are reported on a class-by-class basis so that the capacity and performance of different classes of processors are not erroneously compared or summed. The capacity and usage are monitored and reported in an abstract unit of measurement referred to as a "CPU time unit". Processors of the same type that run at different clock speeds or that have different internal circuitry enabled are preferably assigned the same class, with one or more conversion factors being used to appropriately scale the performance of the processors to the common CPU time unit for this class.