What does licensing per CPU refer to?

Licensing per CPU refers to software fees that are determined by the number of physical Central Processing Units (CPUs) present in a system. This model of licensing is prevalent in the software industry, particularly for enterprise applications and databases, where the costs can vary depending on the hardware configuration.

When licensing software per physical CPU, organizations are charged based on the actual number of CPU sockets installed on their servers, regardless of how many virtual machines or instances run on those CPUs. This can lead to significant cost savings compared to licensing per core or per virtual machine, especially in environments utilizing virtualization.

Other choices do not accurately represent this licensing model. Licensing for virtual CPUs pertains to charges based on virtual processors allocated within a virtualized environment, which is distinct from physical CPU licensing. Annual licensing costs refer to recurring fees rather than a one-time CPU-based fee structure. Fees based on server uptime focus on the availability of the server rather than the hardware component itself, making it unrelated to CPU-based licensing.