Linux – Does lshw list the “factory” speed of a memory module or the effective speed and how to find the former

You can do it by using this simple one way command, which uses the /proc/modules and /sys virtual filesystems:

cat /proc/modules | cut -f 1 -d " " | while read module; do \
 echo "Module: $module"; \
 if [ -d "/sys/module/$module/parameters" ]; then \
  ls /sys/module/$module/parameters/ | while read parameter; do \
   echo -n "Parameter: $parameter --> "; \
   cat /sys/module/$module/parameters/$parameter; \
  done; \
 fi; \
 echo; \
done

You will obtain an output like this:

...
...
Module: vboxnetadp

Module: vboxnetflt

Module: vboxdrv
Parameter: force_async_tsc --> 0

Module: binfmt_misc

Module: uinput

Module: fuse
Parameter: max_user_bgreq --> 2047
Parameter: max_user_congthresh --> 2047

Module: md_mod
Parameter: new_array --> cat: /sys/module/md_mod/parameters/new_array: Permission denied
Parameter: start_dirty_degraded --> 0
Parameter: start_ro --> 0

Module: loop
Parameter: max_loop --> 0
Parameter: max_part --> 0

Module: kvm_intel
Parameter: emulate_invalid_guest_state --> N
Parameter: ept --> Y
Parameter: fasteoi --> Y
Parameter: flexpriority --> Y
Parameter: nested --> N
Parameter: ple_gap --> 0
Parameter: ple_window --> 4096
Parameter: unrestricted_guest --> Y
Parameter: vmm_exclusive --> Y
Parameter: vpid --> Y
Parameter: yield_on_hlt --> Y

Module: kvm
Parameter: allow_unsafe_assigned_interrupts --> N
Parameter: ignore_msrs --> N
Parameter: min_timer_period_us --> 500

Module: tpm_infineon

Module: joydev

Module: snd_hda_codec_hdmi
Parameter: static_hdmi_pcm --> N
...
...

Hope this helps.

(1) I see that each of the running processes occupies a very small percentage of memory (%MEM no more than 0.2%, and most just 0.0%), but how the total memory is almost used as in the fourth line of output ("Mem: 130766620k total, 130161072k used, 605548k free, 919300k buffers")? The sum of used percentage of memory over all processes seems unlikely to achieve almost 100%, doesn't it?

To see how much memory you are currently using, run free -m. It will provide output like:

             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:          2012       1923         88          0         91        515
-/+ buffers/cache:       1316        695
Swap:         3153        256       2896

The top row 'used' (1923) value will almost always nearly match the top row mem value (2012). Since Linux likes to use any spare memory to cache disk blocks (515).

The key used figure to look at is the buffers/cache row used value (1316). This is how much space your applications are currently using. For best performance, this number should be less than your total (2012) memory. To prevent out of memory errors, it needs to be less than the total memory (2012) and swap space (3153).

If you wish to quickly see how much memory is free look at the buffers/cache row free value (695). This is the total memory (2012)- the actual used (1316). (2012 - 1316 = 696, not 695, this will just be a rounding issue)

(2) how to understand the load average on the first line ("load average: 14.04, 14.02, 14.00")?

This article on load average uses a nice traffic analogy and is the best one I've found so far: Understanding Linux CPU Load - when should you be worried?. In your case, as people pointed out:

On multi-processor system, the load is relative to the number of processor cores available. The "100% utilization" mark is 1.00 on a single-core system, 2.00, on a dual-core, 4.00 on a quad-core, etc.

So, with a load average of 14.00 and 24 cores, your server is far from being overloaded.