Write code to make CPU usage display a sine wave

Question

Write code in your favorite language and let Windows Task Manager represent a sine wave in CPU Usage History.

This is a technical in

Answer 1

Here's a slightly modified @flodin's solution in Python:

#!/usr/bin/env python
import itertools, math, time, sys

time_period = float(sys.argv[1]) if len(sys.argv) > 1 else 30   # seconds
time_slice  = float(sys.argv[2]) if len(sys.argv) > 2 else 0.04 # seconds

N = int(time_period / time_slice)
for i in itertools.cycle(range(N)):
    busy_time = time_slice / 2 * (math.sin(2*math.pi*i/N) + 1)
    t = time.clock() + busy_time
    while t > time.clock():
        pass
    time.sleep(time_slice - busy_time);    

A CPU-curve can be fine-tuned using time_period and time_slice parameters.