Burst time can be categorized as CPU burst time and device burst time.

• CPU burst time is the pure calculation time of CPU as executing a specific routine. In another words, the core usage rate of CPU during CPU burst time is 100%.
• Device burst time is the standby time of CPU waiting for completion of other operation as executing a specific routine. Which means the core usage rate of CPU during device burst time is 0%. The cases where CPU waits for other operations to complete are when file is being read/written, DB query is running, or simply putting itself on standby for service response of another host.

When developing a game server, there is a few things that you need to be careful is device burst time is long.

• It is better to unlock mutex or critical section protecting the local memory of game server during device burst time. If they are locked, device burst time may not perform properly and take longer that would appear as a severe lag.