[Lse-tech] 15000+ processes -- poor performance ?!

[Till I. P. <ti...@in...>]

Dear List(s),

as part of my project I need to run a very high number of processes/threads on a
linux machine.  Right now I have a Dual-PIII 1.4G w/ 8GB RAM -- I am running
4000 processes w/ 2-3 threads each totaling in a process count of 15000+
processes (since Linux doesn't really distinguish between threads and
processes...).
Once I pass the 10000 (+/-) pocesses load increases drastically (on startup,
although it returns to normal), however the system time (on one processor)
reaches for 54% (12061 procs) while the only non sleeping process is top -- the
system is basically doing nothing (except scheduling the "nothing" which
consumes significant system time).
Is there anything I can do to reduce that system load/time?  (I haven't been
able to exactly define the "line" but it definitly gets worse the more processes
need to be handled.)
Does any of the patchsets address this particular problem?
BTW: The processes are all alike...

Thanks for you help!

Immanuel