VPS Provider says 1 core /proc/cpuinfo says 4

Question

I have recently changed VPS providers, I have got a very low-powered VPS for running things like an IRC network, and proxy services, etc.

My VPS provider states that I only get 1 core and 512mb of RAM, which is fine.

However, if I cat /proc/cpuinfo it states the following:

processor   : 0
vendor_id   : GenuineIntel
cpu family  : 6
model       : 44
model name  : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU           E5620  @ 2.40GHz
stepping    : 2
cpu MHz     : 2394.018
cache size  : 12288 KB
physical id : 1
siblings    : 8
core id     : 0
cpu cores   : 4
apicid      : 32
initial apicid  : 32
fpu     : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level : 11
wp      : yes
flags       : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good xtopology nonstop_tsc aperfmperf pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx smx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm dca sse4_1 sse4_2 popcnt aes lahf_lm ida arat dts tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid
bogomips    : 4788.03
clflush size    : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes   : 40 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

processor   : 1
vendor_id   : GenuineIntel
cpu family  : 6
model       : 44
model name  : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU           E5620  @ 2.40GHz
stepping    : 2
cpu MHz     : 2394.018
cache size  : 12288 KB
physical id : 0
siblings    : 8
core id     : 0
cpu cores   : 4
apicid      : 0
initial apicid  : 0
fpu     : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level : 11
wp      : yes
flags       : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good xtopology nonstop_tsc aperfmperf pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx smx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm dca sse4_1 sse4_2 popcnt aes lahf_lm ida arat dts tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid
bogomips    : 4787.83
clflush size    : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes   : 40 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

processor   : 2
vendor_id   : GenuineIntel
cpu family  : 6
model       : 44
model name  : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU           E5620  @ 2.40GHz
stepping    : 2
cpu MHz     : 2394.018
cache size  : 12288 KB
physical id : 1
siblings    : 8
core id     : 1
cpu cores   : 4
apicid      : 34
initial apicid  : 34
fpu     : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level : 11
wp      : yes
flags       : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good xtopology nonstop_tsc aperfmperf pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx smx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm dca sse4_1 sse4_2 popcnt aes lahf_lm ida arat dts tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid
bogomips    : 4788.03
clflush size    : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes   : 40 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

processor   : 3
vendor_id   : GenuineIntel
cpu family  : 6
model       : 44
model name  : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU           E5620  @ 2.40GHz
stepping    : 2
cpu MHz     : 2394.018
cache size  : 12288 KB
physical id : 0
siblings    : 8
core id     : 1
cpu cores   : 4
apicid      : 2
initial apicid  : 2
fpu     : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level : 11
wp      : yes
flags       : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good xtopology nonstop_tsc aperfmperf pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx smx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm dca sse4_1 sse4_2 popcnt aes lahf_lm ida arat dts tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid
bogomips    : 4787.83
clflush size    : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes   : 40 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

Which shows that I have got 4 cores, which is incorrect (not that I'd be complaining if I could utilize it).

However, when I cat /proc/meminfo, it reports the correct amount.

Could anyone explain why this is?

Answer 1

I would say your VPS has two quad core CPUs, and you have single core assigned from each CPU, and CPU has hyperthreading enabled so you see one core as two logical units.

---

This two lines mean that hyperthreading is enabled, and therefore you see single core as two logical units.

siblings : 8

cpu cores : 4

---

This means that there are two CPU sockets in question.

processor 0 and 2 have.

physical id : 1

and processor 1 and 3 have

physical id : 0

---

So you have two CPUs with single cores assigned, and each core has two logical CPUs.

You can also try lscpu command to get a different output of CPU info

This is your CPU