Forking in PHP

I'm developing an app in PHP whereby I need to run simulataneous routines at once, but have some sort of control on how many instances of the childs will be spawned and died before another batch is started. Basically, I'm thinking of using a for loop that loops. Let's say I have 20 loops that I need todo, but loop through and executing a system() 5 loops then wait for 15s which should give it enough time for the script in the system() to finish up and die. Then loop the next batch of 5 and so on. I'm wondering whether this would work or not. Also, I'm wondering whether there is a way todo this, similar to the forking in PERL. Any help would be great! Regards, Jonathan Chum ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A I S M e d i a , I n c . "We Build eBusinesses" 3541 Habersham at Northlake, Building E Tucker, GA 30084 Tel: 678.382.2247 / Fax: 678.382.2471 http://www.aismedia.com / jchum@aismedia.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~