Metric Values published by Agent over time interval

Hi Guys,

I am wondering how the metric value that is sent by the Agent is calculated,

I think this is best explained with an example,

I have an Agent installed on a Windows machine. By default CPU Usage is collected every 5 mins.

What I'm wondering  is, is the CPU Usage value that is dispatched by the Agent the last observed CPU value or is it some sort of average over the 5 minutes?

I am using Hyperic vFabric 4.6 with Agent 4.6

any help / clarification greatly appreciated,

thanks - Tom