Confusion over SQL 2005 Standard CPU Support

I'm a little confused over the maximum CPU count supported by SQL 2005 Standard Edition (this particular edition supports four CPUs).

Does the figure refer to four physical CPUs regardless of whether they are dual-cored or hyperthreaded, or does the figure refer to the number of logical CPUs available to the OS?

Let me cut to the chase - if I purchase a server containing four dual-core CPUs and install SQL Server 2005 Standard, will SQL Server see the eight CPUs and utilise a maximum of four of these, or will it be able to use all eight (because there are actually only four physical CPUs)?

Thanks, Chris.

It's per processor regardless of the number of cores. See the link below.

Doug

http://download.microsoft.com/download/e/c/a/ecafe5d1-b514-48ab-93eb-61377df9c5c2/SQLServer2005Licensingv1.1.doc

On the bottom of page two: Microsoft has been driving thought leadership in this area by charging the same amount per processor, regardless of how many cores are in the processor.

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Hi Doug, thanks for the info.

You've actually answered another question that I was going to ask in my original post (but forgot to include).

One thing that's missing is any information regarding SQL Server 2005 Standard's limit of 4 CPUs and whether this limit refers to logical or physical CPUs. I'm now happy with the licensing aspect, they couldn't have made it any clearer, however I don't want to purchase four dual-core CPUs if only four of the eight cores will actually be used by SQL Server.

I have been forwarded the following link that clearly describes SQL Express' behaviour when presented with a single dual-core and/or hyperthreaded CPU, however there seems to be a lack of information as to whether the same rules apply to the Standard and Workgroup editions of SQL Server.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/914278/en-us

Thanks again, Chris.

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From emperical evidence, it looks like Standard is restricting on logical processors.

We have a production config with SQL2005-Standard-SP1 on Dell 6850 (quad-socket/dual-core/hyper-threaded [tulsa]) ..... Taskmgr only shows 4 logical cpus busy at any one time.

Also have SQL2005-Standard-SP1 on Dell 2950 (dual-socket/dual-core [woodcrest]) .... Taskmgr shows all 4 cores busy.

Nice confusing tactics ... license on sockets .... tether performance on logicals.