1. A method for operating a symmetric multiprocessing system comprising: associating a first adaptive partition processing scheduler with a first processing unit; determining a merit function for each adaptive partition associated with the first processing unit, where the merit function for each adaptive partition is based, at least in part, on whether the adaptive partition has available budget on the first processing unit; selectively allocating the first processing unit to run process threads of the adaptive partitions associated with the first processing unit based on a comparison between merit function values of the adaptive partitions associated with the first processing unit; associating a second adaptive partition processing scheduler with a second processing unit; determining a merit function for each adaptive partition associated with the second processing unit, where the merit function for each adaptive partition is based, at least in part, on whether the adaptive partition has available budget on the first processing unit; and selectively allocating the second processing unit to run process threads of the adaptive partitions associated with the second processing unit based on a comparison between merit function values of the adaptive partitions associated with the second processing unit.