Accessing raw CPUID information is actually very easy, here is a C++ class for that which works in Windows, Linux and OSX:
#ifndef CPUID_H
#define CPUID_H
#ifdef _WIN32
#include <limits.h>
#include <intrin.h>
typedef unsigned __int32 uint32_t;
#else
#include <stdint.h>
#endif
class CPUID {
uint32_t regs[4];
public:
explicit CPUID(unsigned i) {
#ifdef _WIN32
__cpuid((int *)regs, (int)i);
#else
asm volatile
("cpuid" : "=a" (regs[0]), "=b" (regs[1]), "=c" (regs[2]), "=d" (regs[3])
: "a" (i), "c" (0));
// ECX is set to zero for CPUID function 4
#endif
}
const uint32_t &EAX() const {return regs[0];}
const uint32_t &EBX() const {return regs[1];}
const uint32_t &ECX() const {return regs[2];}
const uint32_t &EDX() const {return regs[3];}
};
#endif // CPUID_H
To use it just instantiate an instance of the class, load the CPUID instruction you are interested in and examine the registers. For example:
#include "CPUID.h"
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;
int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
CPUID cpuID(0); // Get CPU vendor
string vendor;
vendor += string((const char *)&cpuID.EBX(), 4);
vendor += string((const char *)&cpuID.EDX(), 4);
vendor += string((const char *)&cpuID.ECX(), 4);
cout << "CPU vendor = " << vendor << endl;
return 0;
}
This Wikipedia page tells you how to use CPUID: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CPUID
EDIT: Added #include <intrin.h>
for Windows, per comments.