Multi-CPU on host?

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Windows hosts.
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Pontiac
Posts: 17
Joined: 16. Apr 2008, 18:37

Multi-CPU on host?

Post by Pontiac »

I know that VB emulates a single CPU in the guests. My host is a Socket 478, Intel P4, 3ghz CPU, which supports Hyperthreading.

I don't know if its just a glitch or what, but even if the guest sees one virtual CPU and I give the guest something to think about for a minute or two, I notice that both CPUs the host thinks it has seems to get used. Does the Virtual Box software itself use as many CPUs/Cores as the host has, even to run just one guest?

If I had a quad-core machine running Virtual Box, would I notice a significant increase in the guests actual processing capabilities? Is Virtual Box itself multi-threaded capable?
Sasquatch
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Joined: 17. Mar 2008, 13:41
Primary OS: Debian other
VBox Version: VirtualBox+Oracle ExtPack
Guest OSses: Windows XP, Windows 7, Linux
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Post by Sasquatch »

VB will use only one CPU at max for one VM. The Host can swap it's processing to either core, or distribute it over several cores. It will never go above the total use of one core.
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