Why is my laptop both dual core and quad core at the same time [duplicate]

Solution 1:

What you are seeing is a feature of your CPU called Hyper-Threading, which appears as additional logical processors to the OS.

From Intel's Ark page about that CPU:

Cores - 2
Threads - 4
Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology - Yes

From there as well:

Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology (Intel® HT Technology) delivers two processing threads per physical core. Highly threaded applications can get more work done in parallel, completing tasks sooner.

A related SU question worth checking out on the subject: Hyper-Threading and Dual-Core, What's the Difference?

Solution 2:

It's because your CPU supports hyperthreading.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyper-threading

http://ark.intel.com/products/67355/Intel-Core-i5-3210M-Processor-(3M-Cache-up-to-3_10-GHz-rPGA

Solution 3:

your Chip has Hyperthreading, which allows it to run two threads on each core semi-synchronously. This capability presents itself to the OS as additional cores.