Editing Load (computing) (section)

{{Short description|Amount of computational work that a computer system performs}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2022}}
{{more citations needed|date=November 2010}}
[[File:Big-load.png|thumb|[[htop]] displaying a significant computing load (top right: ''Load average:'')]] In [[UNIX]] [[computing]], the system '''load''' is a measure of the amount of computational work that a computer system performs.  The '''load average''' represents the average system load over a period of time.  It conventionally appears in the form of three numbers which represent the system load during the last one-, five-, and fifteen-minute periods.