load average calculation using top

I'm working on performance testing of application and would like to validate the performance of the server during testing. Currently, the server is a 16 multiprocessor with single core on each CPU. I'm validating the CPU utilization of the server using the top command and I'm getting the load average value as 0.47,0.37,0.22. I'm trying to understand the load average of the server however, getting confused. Does the value show for single CPU or for 16 CPUs available? Kindly help with answers. Also please help with other commands to validate the performance of server.