... Return to the Kernel page . ... This article is part of the LWN Porting Drivers to 2.6 series . The 2.6 kernel makes extensive use of per-CPU data - arrays containing one object for each processor on the system. Per-CPU variables are not suitable for every task, but, in situations where they can be used, they do offer a couple of advantages: . Per-CPU variables have fewer locking requirements since they are (normally) only accessed by a single processor. ... DEFINE_PER_CPU(type, name); . ...