Using Top - 4 processes have 100%+ CPU: How?

Solution 1:

Is it a multi core machine? My laptop is a dual core, and I can get top to show 100% for 2 processes.

From my understanding, top will give you 100% per processor/core.

Solution 2:

Different versions of top display CPU usage differently. Assuming your referring to individual process line items, top is displaying cumulative CPU usage for that process and all child threads. IE if a process has two child threads running, one using 50% of CPU 0 and the other thread using 75% of CPU 1, top will report CPU usage for the process at 125%.

These threads can be displayed by running top with an -H or in PS with the -m option.