What is Kernel Times

I've recently noticed that there is a 'Show Kernel Times' option in Windows XP's Task Manager under the 'Performance' tab. This shows up as a red meter over the green 'CPU Usage' meter. Exactly what is Kernel Times?

Solution 1:

Understanding User and Kernel Mode

http://blog.codinghorror.com/understanding-user-and-kernel-mode/

In Kernel mode, the executing code has complete and unrestricted access to the underlying hardware. It can execute any CPU instruction and reference any memory address. Kernel mode is generally reserved for the lowest-level, most trusted functions of the operating system. Crashes in kernel mode are catastrophic; they will halt the entire PC.

Solution 2:

Kernel time is the execution time of a process spent in the kernel. e.g. for networking, disk I/O or other kernel tasks.