kernel_task

javacowboy

I noticed something odd in my Activity Monitor lately.



The kernel_task process has 49 threads running and always uses up 70+ Mb of memory.



What's even scarier is that immediately after a reboot, without opening up any apps (beside Activity Monitor), I saw the same 49 processes and use of RAM, as well as occasional spikes in my network usage! I saw spikes mostly for the green line (data received) but also for data sent as well.



Is this just some regular polling process (possibly with my router), or do I have reason to be paranoid?

marvin

Quote:

Originally Posted by JavaCowboy


I noticed something odd in my Activity Monitor lately.



The kernel_task process has 49 threads running and always uses up 70+ Mb of memory.



What's even scarier is that immediately after a reboot, without opening up any apps (beside Activity Monitor), I saw the same 49 processes and use of RAM, as well as occasional spikes in my network usage! I saw spikes mostly for the green line (data received) but also for data sent as well.



Is this just some regular polling process (possibly with my router), or do I have reason to be paranoid?

OMG, someone is HaXXoring teh MatriXX.



Kernel_task is nothing to worry about. It's a system process that normally has loads of threads:



http://bleepsoft.com/tyler/index.php?itemid=43



The Network activity can be a bit deceiving because I'm sure it scales the graph based on the usage. So even just transmitting 5k of data or something would show a spike when the network is not in use. If you ethernet two computers together, they transmit small amounts of data on their own.

zachpruckowski

Quote:

Originally Posted by JavaCowboy


I noticed something odd in my Activity Monitor lately.



The kernel_task process has 49 threads running and always uses up 70+ Mb of memory.



What's even scarier is that immediately after a reboot, without opening up any apps (beside Activity Monitor), I saw the same 49 processes and use of RAM, as well as occasional spikes in my network usage! I saw spikes mostly for the green line (data received) but also for data sent as well.



Is this just some regular polling process (possibly with my router), or do I have reason to be paranoid?

This link might be a little clearer. But in layman's terms, the kernel is quartermaster of the OS. It hands out resources and runs some lower-level tasks. It's a pretty important function, and it's pretty essential. On my iBook, it uses about 10% of my RAM and about 5% of my processing power.



So you likely have little to worry about. If you're kernel's messed up, you'll notice.

hiro

The kernel also transmits info over network loopback to communicate between processes. So even though you are getting enet traffic, it isn't leaving the machine for kernel_task communications.