A DESCRIPTION OF THE REQUEST :
The VM does not use cpuset information on linux to determine the number of available processors.  This can result in a very inflated number of processors reported.  The active processor count is used a number of times in the VM internals.  It is also reported by Runtime.availableProcessors() which is used, among other places, by the fork/join framework.  I have worked on a patch that uses the cpuset information when available, and otherwise reverts back to the original method of detecting the number of processors.

JUSTIFICATION :
With the patch, Runtime.availableProcessors() reports 3968 on a SGI UV 1000 when the cpuset policy has restricted the process to 32 cores.  With the patch, it reports 32.