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Suppose a system has 4 Intel Xeon processors each having 10 physical cores with HyperThreading enabled which makes a total of 80 cores
Now it is completely confusing when in documentation they start to use these terminologies differently everywhere.
Now the question is that am i right here ?
Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Enterprise x64 Edition supports 8 processors [Link]
And then it is also written
x64-based versions of Windows Server 2003 that are running on a computer that uses a multicore processor or a hyper-threading processor support a maximum number of 64 logical processors.
This means that that Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Enterprise x64 support only 8 logical cores since they used the word processor twice with different context ?
As far as i can remember CPU is equivalent to core, and processors are the hardware that bundle up CPUs and attach them onto one socket.
In short, for the top most description, the system has 8 processors, 40 physical CPUs(cores) in total and 80 Logical CPUs(cores) ?
So in this case, Windows 2003 can support 8 processors with upto a maximum of 64 logical cores. But where does the word CPU fit in ? – Basit Anwer – 2012-06-20T06:47:00.140
Well, in this case, the CPU is a physical processor with whatever number of cores and threads – Journeyman Geek – 2012-06-20T06:49:21.243
and each physical core is 2 logical cores with hyperthreading. Missed that bit. – Journeyman Geek – 2012-06-20T07:09:03.133
only for Intel http://serverfault.com/questions/395650/hyperthreading-can-only-create-two-threads
– Basit Anwer – 2012-06-20T07:14:30.4401Well, only intel calls multiple threads per core hyperthreading. In addition, none of the other x86 vendors seem to use that technique. In the context of windows this is still true. However different Vendors (oracle for example) may use different definitions of 'processor'. – Journeyman Geek – 2012-06-20T07:17:12.307
1@Basit Anwer: The term Central Processor Unit (CPU) originated in the days when processors were made from discrete parts. In the 1980's single chip "microprocessor" CPUs emerged, used in small personal computers called "micros" - These had one CPU (or "processor") on one microchip (therefore a "microprocessor"). When chips began to be able to contain multiple processors, some circuitry was shared but the "core" (i.e. the heart of the processor) parts were replicated so that the one chip essentially contains multiple processors (multiple CPUs) - hence the use of the word "core" in this context. – RedGrittyBrick – 2012-06-20T09:58:54.430
@RedGrittyBrick So the term CPU is not supported anymore, there are only processors and cores. Thanks – Basit Anwer – 2012-06-20T10:05:18.103