It felt like a mini-tech adventure. I set up single-core and multi-core Linux VMs on AWS, and wow, it wasn’t just a task… it was an experience.
The Beginning: Excited but Under Pressure
When I launched the EC2 instances in the Learner Lab, I wasn’t just nervous, I was watching the clock. I was really afraid I might consume the entire $50 credit. I kept thinking, “What if nothing is left for tomorrow? What if I finish everything today and end up paying out of my own pocket?”
So there I was asking myself:
“Should I launch now? What if I make a mistake? What if I waste my time credits?”
But instead of overthinking and losing precious minutes, I pushed forward. I reminded myself:
“You learn by doing, not by being scared of the timer.”
And with that, I finally started my setup.
Setting Up the Machines
I spun up two Ubuntu VMs:
At first, the dashboards looked intimidating. Too many numbers. Too many metrics.
But I breathed, took my time, and slowly figured out what each part meant.
And boom, both machines were finally running!
Stress Test: Confusing at First, but Eye-Opening
When I reached the part where I had to run the CPU stress test, I’ll be honest, I didn’t fully understand what I was looking at. The command ran, numbers started jumping, and I had no idea if this was normal or if I had accidentally broken something.
I even had to ask Claude AI to help me interpret what was happening.
Here’s what I learned:
On the single-core VM, the load spiked really fast. At first, I panicked because it looked like the system was struggling badly. But it turns out, this is exactly how a single-core behaves when it’s pushed to its limit, one core doing all the work alone.
On the multi-core VM, the behavior was different. Even with more workload, it looked smoother and less overwhelmed. The tasks were being shared across two cores, and seeing that parallel processing in action finally made sense to me.
What started as confusion ended up being one of the most eye-opening parts of the activity.
The Weakness I Overcame
My biggest weakness?
I always doubt myself when configuring servers.
I used to think cloud setups were only for “experts.”
But today, I proved myself wrong.
I overcame:
Fear of misconfiguring instances
Confusion about VM specs
Anxiety when CPU graphs spike
Every challenge became a learning moment.
What I Learned
Single-core = powerful but easily overwhelmed
Multi-core = smoother, more efficient multitasking
Load average makes more sense when you consider the number of cores
And most importantly:
I can set up cloud servers confidently.
Ending the Day Feeling Proud
This experiment wasn’t just about CPU performance.
It was about pushing myself, learning hands-on, and proving I can handle real cloud tasks, even when they look scary at first.
And honestly?
It felt amazing.
When you open your laptop or phone, there’s one tiny component that decides how fast everything runs, the processor. But should you care if it’s single-core or multi-core? Absolutely!
Single-Core: One Brain
A single-core processor has one worker doing all the tasks. It’s fine for simple jobs, but once you multitask, it slows down because everything shares the same core.
Multi-Core: Many Brains
A multi-core processor gives you multiple workers. This means your device can handle more tasks at the same time, smoother apps, faster loading, and better performance overall.
The Difference
Single-core = one lane road
Multi-core = highway with multiple lanes
More lanes = less traffic = faster performance.
The Bottom Line
If you multitask, game, edit videos, browse a lot, or use modern apps, multi-core wins every time. It's faster, more efficient, and built for today’s workloads.