local timers vs APIC question

Hi All,

I have a question about the timers on the intel platform.

While looking at the /proc/interrupts on different hosts, I see for an intel i7 or intel Xeon 5345, the IO-APIC-edge timer is rarely used and the local timers are widely used but on Core 2 Duo T9500, the APIC timer is more used than the local timers.

Why there is such difference ? Does anyone have a hint to investigate why that happens ?

Thanks in advance

-- Daniel