mysqld processor load: interesting observation

[Ilya Obshadko]

I wrote yesterday that mysqld shows about 20% of CPU load even when all
threads are idle. Today, for a different purpose, I've decreased Apache
MaxRequestsPerChild value from 64 to 16. I'm using Apache::DBI, so every
apache child estabilishes at least one connection at startup. After
decreasing MaxRequestsPerChild I've noticed that CPU load of mysql has
become about 3-4 times lower. Physically this means that decreasing the
'lifetime' of mysqld thread decreases overall CPU load. Is there any
explanation?

#-- Ilya Obshadko [IDO-RIPN] -------------------------------#
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