[[File:Big-load.png|thumb|[[htop]] displaying a bigsignificant 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.
