ProcessorHandler

ProcessorHandler, also referred to as processorhandler, is a software abstraction that centralizes the management of processing resources within a computer system. It coordinates how tasks are assigned to CPU cores, how cores are activated or put into low-power states, and how performance and thermal constraints are balanced. In higher-level systems it may be part of an operating system scheduler, a runtime library, or a dedicated service in heterogeneous computing environments.

Its core responsibilities include task scheduling and load balancing across cores, maintaining or adjusting processor affinity, and reacting to changes in core availability. It may also coordinate interactions with the interrupt controller, memory hierarchy, and hardware power management features. In virtualized or containerized environments, the processorhandler can expose per-tenant or per-VM core assignment and ensure isolation while preserving overall system efficiency. It often exposes metrics such as per-core utilization, frequency, and idle time, which feed decision algorithms for scaling and throttling.

Implementation notes: processorhandler modules are typically designed as a singleton service or kernel component. They can work in tandem with a hardware abstraction layer and a performance monitoring subsystem. Platforms may implement them with different policy engines, such as aggressive vs conservative scheduling, energy-aware balancing, or latency-sensitive constraints. Cross-platform support requires abstracting core counts, heterogeneity, and power states, such as C-states and P-states on x86 or equivalent on ARM.

See also: processor, CPU scheduling, thread affinity, CPU frequency scaling, power management, hypervisor.