What is the difference between Local timer interrupts and the timer?

When I do cat /proc/interrupts on my multicore x86_64 desktop PC (kernel 3.16) I see this: 0: 16 0 IO-APIC-edge timer LOC: 529283 401319 Local timer interrupts When I do cat /proc/interrupts on my multicore x86_64 laptop (kernel 3.19) I see this: 0: 1009220 0 IO-APIC-edge timer LOC: 206713 646587 Local timer interrupts When I saw this difference, I asked myself what the difference between those two is? I hope someone can explain this rather thoroughly, the explanation given [here](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/25931134/why-the-count-of-io-apic-edge-timer-showed-in-proc-interrupts-does-not-change-o) is not very detailed and does not explain why my desktop PC does not use timer, but my laptop does.