Phil Bull
philbull@gmail.com 2011
Michael Hill
mdhillca@gmail.com 2011, 2014
Use Solaris mode to reflect the number of CPUs.

# What is Solaris mode?

In a system that has multiple CPUs or cores, processes can use more than one at the same time. It is possible for the % CPU column to display values that total greater than 100% (i.e. 400% in a 4-CPU system). Solaris mode divides the % CPU for each process by the number of CPUs in the system so that the total will be 100%.

To display the % CPU in Solaris mode:

Click Preferences in the app menu.

Click the Processes tab.

Select Divide CPU Usage by CPU Count.

The term Solaris mode derives from Sun's UNIX, compared to the Linux default of IRIX mode, named for SGI's UNIX.