is node.js a one process server?

Question

is node.js a one process server, or can it emulate Apache bunch of child processes, each serves a different request, and each is independent from the other (and the cycling of child processes to avoid long term memory leaks).
Is it at all needed when using node.js?

Answer 1

Node.js by default is a one process server. For most purposes that's all that's needed (IO limits and memory limits are typically reached before CPU limits).

If you need more processes you can use http://learnboost.github.com/cluster/

Answer 2

It's single process and single threaded, due to the fact that Node is non-blocking and event-based. This means this single process can handle many requests at the same time, sending a response back whenever the response is ready.

The key point to note, is that Node is non-blocking.