Tsuna analyzes how match time it takes to make a context switch. All analyzed chips are Multi-core Intel CPUs. OS / scheduler used – standard Linux Kernel.
Results: depends on what we call a context switch (theoretical / real world) and what we measure is: 1000 ns – 4500 ns (up to 45000 ns – depends on performance penalties involved).
However thing that I didn’t know is – context switch can be 3 times slower in virtual environment such as VMware ESX server or VMware Workstation.