Unexpected processor/core counts for AMD processor

Last Modified

Sun Dec 09 16:04 GMT 2018

Description

• HP server with AMD Opteron(tm) Processor 6376, N-able N-central reports the 2 CPUs, both are registered as 8 core when in reality they are 16 core CPUs Why is this information inaccurate?

Environment

• N-able N-central

Solution

• When using the Opteron 6300 Series Processors, the information for "Cores" will display incorrectly from the WMI.

• AMD's Bulldozer/Piledriver/Steamroller/Excavator microarchitecture, which is used in most of its current and recent processors including your 6276, has "modules" that are pairs of "cores" sharing certain components.
• The modules are somewhere between a single hyperthreaded core and a true pair of independent cores, with performance varying between being like one core and like two cores depending on the application.AMD market each such module as two cores, calling the Opteron 6276 as a 16-core. Some software instead regards each module as a single physical core with two logical cores, and it looks like Linux is doing it that way.