interrupt latency/700microsecs

[Muthal Sangam]

On kernel 2.4.7, AMDK6 @ 450MHz processor, is it possible to get latency
fluctuations of upto 700microsecs for running the timer interrupt, due to
interrupts being disabled ?

I am using the time stamp counter and reading it at the start of the timer
interrupt and measuring the cycles elapsed between two inovocations of it.
The number of cycles elapsed is ~4500225, but sometimes it increases to as
high as 4848032. Can i conclude that this difference is due to interrupts
being disabled in critical sections ? ( I think i am making some mistake :-)

- sangam