[rotuts]

Hello

don't know if this is a hardware or software question, but will post here and see.

with a dual processor machine, mine is a dual g4 1gz, the activity monitor under "CPU" displayes on the bottom activity on two chips, I think.

but in the upper box, under %cpu its unlcear what that is telling me, and if the total then should be 200% for two chips.

the reason I ask, is that I have an excellent TV card from Alchemy, and I use Sorensen3 for initial compression when DVRing RV shows. this takes up most of my CPU usagem and I have to be carefull what otgher programs I open atg the same time. or my archived sh0ow suffers.

some of this MAY be due to quicktime usage by the DVR program then making it diffuclt to share subroutines with other apps.

some apps don't cause a p[roblem, some do (iDVD) but from time to time Ive noticed that total cpu ususage is >100%, so thought Id ask is the total full usage with a dual 200%?

Im trying by trial and error to get a good DVR, but do some things while AlchemyDVR us running.

thanks rotut

[larkost]

You are correct, and each processor gets 100 "percent" so if you have two processes that are each monopolizing a processor, you can get 200 "percent" usage. This is a bit weird at first, but you get used to it.

This sort of thing does make for difficulties in boxes with more than 4 processors... Of course at that level you are usually using better tools...

[someone_else]

Originally posted by larkost:
You are correct, and each processor gets 100 "percent" so if you have two processes that are each monopolizing a processor, you can get 200 "percent" usage. This is a bit weird at first, but you get used to it.

This sort of thing does make for difficulties in boxes with more than 4 processors... Of course at that level you are usually using better tools...

Yep. I used to admin HP-UX boxes with 4 cpu's, and even their costly management tool (Glance) reports 100% for each processor, so you could see 400% usage. This is normal in the Unix world. Solaris does the same thing.

[Richard Edgar]

Solaris does the same thing

Last time I checked (one minute ago), top on Solaris reports 100% when the whole machine is in use, regardless of the number of processors.

[CD Hanks]

Originally posted by Richard Edgar:
Last time I checked (one minute ago), top on Solaris reports 100% when the whole machine is in use, regardless of the number of processors.

Because it's taking an average of both processors usage.

[Richard Edgar]

Because it's taking an average of both processors usage

Two points

• I had worked that out. My intent was to provide further information/correction/comparison
• What about the other 22 processors?

[fromthecloud]

Originally posted by Richard Edgar:
What about the other 22 processors?

Give them to me.