CPU utilization of Node.js on Amazon EC2

Question

Seeing as how node is single threaded, If I have node server running on an amazon EC2 instance with 4 EC2 Compute units will it run any faster / handle more load than if I have

Answer 1

Amazon's concept of total "EC2 Compute Units" for an instance type does not map directly to a CPU or core. It is the number of cores multiplied by the speed of each core in EC2 compute units (their own relative measurement).

Amazon does list how many virtual cores each instance type has:

http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/index.html?instance-types.html

Your best option is to use all of the cores as others point out. However, if you end up with a single threaded solution, then you will want to focus on the speed of the individual cores, not the total EC2 compute units of all the cores added together.