How to check CPU details on LinuxI
t is important to know the details about the processor and the specification of the system used. In this topic we will be covering how to get the details regarding number of cores, availability of hyper threading, architecture, cache size etc. It is not possible to get all the information in one command, so we will be going through some of the commonly used commands for getting details regarding the processor/CPU (Central Processing Unit)
1) Vendor and model of the processor
The details of processor’s vendor and model name can be find in /proc/cpuinfo file with the help of grep command.
cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep vendor | uniq
vendor_id: Genuine Intel
The following command can be followed to get the model name of the processor.
cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep ‘model name’ | uniq
model name: Intel Xeon E312xx (Sandy Bridge)
2) Architecture
The lscpu command provides the architecture details of the processor
Architecture: x86_64
CPU op-mode(s): 32-bit, 64-bit
Byte Order: Little Endian
———-
The architecture x86_64 indicates that it is a 64 bit processor.
3) Frequency
The information regarding frequency of the processor is available in both the lcpu and /proc/cpuinfo
It is to be noted that the frequency displayed in the output cannot be actual frequency, because the cpu tries to not use all of its power. They only consume more power or use higher frequency during the time of high load.
$ lscpu | grep -i mhz
CPU MHz: 3300.014
$ cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep -i mhz | uniq
cpu MHz : 3300.014
If you wish to monitor the change in the frequency, then follow the given command:
$ watch -n 0.1 “cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep -i mhz”
The output of the above command gives an updated information regarding the frequency consumption of the processor.
Every 0.1s: cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep -i mhz Thu Oct 13 10:20:32 2016
cpu MHz : 3300.014
cpu MHz : 3300.014
cpu MHz : 3300.014
4) Number of cores
This number indicates the separate number of the CPU (Central Processing Unit). The higher the number of cores, more multi-tasking can be achieved. That is more than one program can be executed at a time thereby enhancing the speed of the processor.
The lscpu commands provides the details regarding the “cores per socket”.
$ lscpu
Architecture: x86_64
CPU op-mode(s): 32-bit, 64-bit
Byte Order: Little Endian
CPU(s): 2
On-line CPU(s) list: 0
Thread(s) per core: 1
Core(s) per socket: 2
Socket(s): 1
We also know that /proc/cpuinfo file also provides details regarding the number of cores in the processor.
It won’t be a wise decision to completely rely on counting the number of processors.
$ cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep ‘processor’
processor: 0
Some processors may come under the category of hyper thread processors where the operating system considers the number of cores as double. Where the actual reality is one. Whereas /proc/cpuinfo has an information regarding the “core id”. This is a unique id for each processor. By counting the number of “core id” it will give an actual report reading the number of cores.
$ cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep -i ‘core id’
core id: 0
Also there are processors which comes under the category of multiple processors. This means that the system contains more than one physical processors. It is seen that a system contains more than one processors attached in a motherboard. In those cases, the output of the /proc/cpuinfo will be different. The “physical id” values will have more than one value in the case of multiple processor.
$ cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep -i ‘physical id’ | uniq
physical id: 0
It is to be noted that if the output of the above command gives you more than one physical id then just know the fact that the system contains multiple physical processors.
5) Hyper threading
Intel introduced a technology called Hyper Threading where it permits each core to act like 2 logical processing units. This technology built to meet one and only goal and that is speed. Which will cause an increase in the power of processing units of each core up to a limit. For confirming whether the processor has hyper thread technology embedded in it, we have to go through some numbers in the of logical processing units and actual number of cores.
The method for the final decision making is by checking the number of processing units is equal to the number of cores, if so then we can come to the conclusion that it has no hyper threading technology. If the number of processing units is more or twice the number of cores then push the button.
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