Question

Ignoring the model name, it appears this cloud server has 4 single core processors without hyperthreading.

However the model name indicates that it’s quad core. I’m not the system admin so I didn’t buy this instance of a cloud server, nor have I been configuring it. Doesn’t this look a little off though?

$ sudo cat /proc/cpuinfo |grep -iE "physical ID|processor|core id|core|model name|sibling" | sort

core id         : 0
core id         : 0
core id         : 0
core id         : 0
cpu cores       : 1
cpu cores       : 1
cpu cores       : 1
cpu cores       : 1
model name      : Quad-Core AMD Opteron(tm) Processor 2374 HE
model name      : Quad-Core AMD Opteron(tm) Processor 2374 HE
model name      : Quad-Core AMD Opteron(tm) Processor 2374 HE
model name      : Quad-Core AMD Opteron(tm) Processor 2374 HE
physical id     : 0
physical id     : 1
physical id     : 2
physical id     : 3
processor       : 0
processor       : 1
processor       : 2
processor       : 3
siblings        : 1
siblings        : 1
siblings        : 1
siblings        : 1

Here’s the documentation from AMD for this product
http://products.amd.com/en-us/OpteronCPUDetail.aspx?id=518&f1=&f2=&f3=Yes&f4=&f5=&f6=&f7=&f8=&f9=&f10=&f11=&

1. Does this box have 4 single core CPUs with no hyperthreading or is it a quad
   core?
2. Why is it normal for a vCPU to have the specs be different than what
   the manufacturer’s specs are?

Answer 1

This virtual machine is configured with 4 single core virtual CPUs. The actual hardware of the cloud provider is one or more quad core CPUs. They advertise the actual physical CPU type for several reasons including not having to emulate CPUID and feature flags (unless overridden)