Source for the information below.

Viewing /proc/cpuinfo will display what type of processor your system is running including the number of CPUs present.

A breakdown of the items you should look for are the following:

* processor – Provides each processor with an identifying number. If you have one processor it will display a 0. If you have more than one processor it will display all processor information separately counting the processors using zero notation.

* cpu family – Authoritatively tells you the type of processor you have in the system. If your computer is an Intel-based system, simply place the number in front of “86” to determine the value. This is helpful to determine the type of architecture of an older system and is helpful in determining which compiled RPM package would best suit that system.

* model name – Gives you the common name of the processor, including the project name.

* cpu MHz – Shows the processor’s precise speed, in megahertz, to the thousandth decimal point.

* cache size – Tells you the amount of level 2 memory cache available to the processor.

* flags – Defines a number of different processor attributes, such as the presence of a floating-point unit (FPU) and the ability to process MMX instructions.

Here is example output from cat /proc/cpuinfo of a system containing 2 CPUs. Note how processor 1 is displayed as ‘processor : 0’ and processor 2 is displayed as ‘processor : 1’ in the output:

processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 15
model : 2
model name : Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz
stepping : 9
cpu MHz : 2793.076
cache size : 512 KB
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 2
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe cid xtpr
bogomips : 5587.89
clflush size : 64