i7 970 processor only 8 cores ?

[idata]

I just finished building a new computer, using the i7 970 processor. It is on an ASUS Rampage III Formula mobo running Ubuntu 10.10. The System monitor program built into Ubuntu only recognized 8 cores ... I assume it sees four real cores and 4 hyperthreaded cores. BOINC manager when it starts recognizes the processor as an i7 970 running at 3.2 GHz, which is correct, but also only sees 8 cores. The computer seems to work fine on general tasks and on BOINC as well, quite stable even while working those 8 cores hard on BOINC work units.

I can think of perhaps three reasons I am not seeing 12 cores .... (1) the processor is flawed (2) there is something wrong with the 1366 socket or (3) the installation of the processor card in the socket is flawed. Since the computer nominally seems to work fine, I really don't see how (2) or (3) can be the culprits, and am left with the only guess that is it the processor itslef. I should mention that all settings for the processor and memory are the mobo default, no overclocking has been attempted. 6 Gb of RAM installed.

Comments and / or suggestions please ? Thanks in advance.

[Salem_W_Intel1]

Hi,

I confirm the http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=47933&code=Intel%C2%AE+Core%E2%84%A2+i7-970+Processor+%2812M+Cache%2c+3.20+GHz%2c+4.80+GT/s+Intel%C2%AE+QPI%29 Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-970 Processor does come with 6 physical cores, which, when hyper-threaded, they could sum up for a total of 12. Hence, I'd next recommend the following:

1. Ensure the processor cores are detected fine in BIOS.

2. If the BIOS does see the cores, proceed running the Intel(R) Processor Identification Utility (Click http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=7840&ProdId=1881&lang=eng here); this should confirm how the processor's running.

and

3. Ensure the BIOS is latest version. For this, please, check with Asus.