diff --git a/src/libstd/rt/mod.rs b/src/libstd/rt/mod.rs
index 1724361cabcc..10b5c78f99e5 100644
--- a/src/libstd/rt/mod.rs
+++ b/src/libstd/rt/mod.rs
@@ -139,6 +139,9 @@ pub mod join_latch;
 
 pub mod metrics;
 
+// FIXME #5248 shouldn't be pub
+/// Just stuff
+pub mod util;
 
 /// Set up a default runtime configuration, given compiler-supplied arguments.
 ///
diff --git a/src/libstd/rt/test.rs b/src/libstd/rt/test.rs
index 6e4fb9b1d940..36efcd91834b 100644
--- a/src/libstd/rt/test.rs
+++ b/src/libstd/rt/test.rs
@@ -63,11 +63,11 @@ pub fn run_in_newsched_task(f: ~fn()) {
 /// in one of the schedulers. The schedulers will stay alive
 /// until the function `f` returns.
 pub fn run_in_mt_newsched_task(f: ~fn()) {
-    use libc;
     use os;
     use from_str::FromStr;
     use rt::uv::uvio::UvEventLoop;
     use rt::sched::Shutdown;
+    use rt::util;
 
     let f_cell = Cell::new(f);
 
@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ pub fn run_in_mt_newsched_task(f: ~fn()) {
                 // Using more threads than cores in test code
                 // to force the OS to preempt them frequently.
                 // Assuming that this help stress test concurrent types.
-                rust_get_num_cpus() * 2
+                util::num_cpus() * 2
             }
         };
 
@@ -132,9 +132,6 @@ pub fn run_in_mt_newsched_task(f: ~fn()) {
         let _threads = threads;
     }
 
-    extern {
-        fn rust_get_num_cpus() -> libc::uintptr_t;
-    }
 }
 
 // THIS IS AWFUL. Copy-pasted the above initialization function but
diff --git a/src/libstd/rt/util.rs b/src/libstd/rt/util.rs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..39b9de90f347
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/libstd/rt/util.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+// Copyright 2013 The Rust Project Developers. See the COPYRIGHT
+// file at the top-level directory of this distribution and at
+// http://rust-lang.org/COPYRIGHT.
+//
+// Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 <LICENSE-APACHE or
+// http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0> or the MIT license
+// <LICENSE-MIT or http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT>, at your
+// option. This file may not be copied, modified, or distributed
+// except according to those terms.
+
+use libc;
+
+/// Get the number of cores available
+pub fn num_cpus() -> uint {
+    unsafe {
+        return rust_get_num_cpus();
+    }
+
+    extern {
+        fn rust_get_num_cpus() -> libc::uintptr_t;
+    }
+}
\ No newline at end of file