1. A method for operating a symmetric multiprocessing system comprising: associating a first adaptive partition processing scheduler with a first processing unit of the symmetric multiprocessing system; determining a merit function for each of a plurality of adaptive partitions associated with the first processing unit, where each adaptive partition associated with the first processing unit comprises a plurality of process threads, and 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; assigning budgets for use by each partition of the adaptive partitions associated with the first processing unit based on a number of ticks occurring during an averaging window; affirmatively determining that an adaptive partition associated with the first processing unit has available budget on the first processing unit when a number of ticks used by the adaptive partition associated with the first processing unit during a current averaging window is less than or equal to a number of ticks assigned as a budget to the adaptive partition for the first processing unit; selectively allocating, using the first adaptive partition processing scheduler, the first processing unit of the symmetric multiprocessing system 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 of the symmetric multiprocessing system; determining a merit function for each of a plurality of adaptive partitions associated with the second processing unit, where each adaptive partition associated with the second processing unit comprises a plurality of process threads, and where the merit function for each adaptive partition is based, at least in part, on whether the adaptive partition has available budget on the second processing unit; and selectively allocating using the second adaptive partition processing scheduler, the second processing unit of the symmetric multiprocessing system 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.