title: Getting CPU time in OS X
body: <p>I have an objective-c application for OS X that compares two sqlite DB's and produces a diff in json format. The db are quite large (10,000 items with many fields). Sometimes this applications runs in about 55 sec(using 95% of the cpu). Sometimes it takes around 8 min (using 12% of the cpu). This is with the same DB's. When it is only using a small portion of the cpu the rest is available. There does not appear to be anything taking priority over the process. Adding "nice -20" on the command seems to assure I get the cpu usage. My questions are </p>
  
  <ol>
  <li><p>If nothing else is using the cpu why
  does my app not take advantage of
  it?</p></li>
  <li><p>Is there something I can do
  programatically to change this?</p></li>
  <li><p>Is there something I can do to OS X to
  change this?</p></li>
  </ol>