code: def detect_cpus():
      
      # Linux, Unix and MacOS:
      if hasattr(os, "sysconf"):
          if os.sysconf_names.has_key("SC_NPROCESSORS_ONLN"):
              # Linux & Unix:
              ncpus = os.sysconf("SC_NPROCESSORS_ONLN")
              if isinstance(ncpus, int) and ncpus > 0:
                  return ncpus
          else: # OSX:
              return int(os.popen2("sysctl -n hw.ncpu")[1].read())
      # Windows:
      if os.environ.has_key("NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS"):
          ncpus = int(os.environ["NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS"])
          if ncpus > 0:
              return ncpus
      return 1
docs: Detects the number of CPUs on a system. This is better than asking
      ipyparallel since ipp has to wait for Engines to spin up.