cpu processors

[Guest]

hi !

i've got an IBM server xseries 365 with 2 physical pentium processors and 8 MB RAM so i've installed W2K advanced server with sp 3 and no found problems across the instalation and configuration the RAM memory /3GB /PAE

but when i go to the task manager / performance page and in the CPU usage history box i see 4 CPU but the server has 2 physical..

someone could explain me what happened ?

thanks in advanc
LuchoF

 

[Wouter]

hi !!

i've got an IBM server xseries 365 with 2 physical pentium
processors and 8 MB RAM so i've installed W2K advanced
server with sp 3 and no found problems across the
instalation and configuration the RAM memory /3GB /PAE

but when i go to the task manager / performance page and in
the CPU usage history box i see 4 CPU but the server has 2
physical...

someone could explain me what happened ??

thanks in advance
LuchoF

Your CPU's have Hyper Threading technology.
This kinda works for Windows as two CPU's in one physical chip.
So, Windows believe it has 2 times 2 = 4 CPU's.
Realise that not all (specially some older) applications do
support multiple CPU's, thus Hyper Threading won't allways
workout well.
Usually Hyper Threading can be disabled in the PC Bios, this
should be done though prior to Windows installation.

 

[Wouter]

thanks, exactly as you wrote i already found that option in
the bios of my server

but i have got another question...does affect the
performance enabling this option ? or is better work with
the native conditions (2 cpu's)...perhaps would be better
because this server gonna be a transactional database server
and will work under highly extreme conditions of
transactions...

thanks for your advice...

LuchoF

Usually you should leave the Hyper Threading option enabled (its
default most times).
Unless you experience strange behaviour or the documentation of
your application explicitely says Multiple CPUs or Hyper
Threading is not supported.

 

[Guest]

Just to let you know, I have a dual physical processor machine that had hyper-threading enabled to give us 4 logical procs. We had to disable hyper-t, as a server app we had installed is only licensed for 2 processors. Appently hyper-threading broke that agreement! Windows was shutdown, hyper-t disabled and windows restarted, reconfigured itself, rebooted and came back up ok. So you can change the setting after installation.

All the best,

Non Hyper-threaded of London