ColdFusion 9 Licence

CF9 is no longer available for purchase or downgrading, as it reached End-of-Life back in December.  However, if I recall correctly, CF9's EULA did not restrict usage based on number of cores, but rather on physical processors.  Here is the relevant section of the EULA:

3.1.1 Adobe grants Licensee a license to install and use the Software as Production Software on a per-CPU basis as provided in a separate writing. The total number of CPUs of all of the Computers on which the Software operates may not exceed the total number of CPUs separately licensed. For purposes of this License Metric, (a) all CPUs on a Computer on which the Software is installed shall be deemed to operate the Software unless Licensee configures that Computer (using a reliable and verifiable means of hardware or software partitioning) such that the total number of CPUs that actually operate the Software is less than the total number on that Computer, and (b) a CPU shall mean a single, physical chip with the capability of housing multiple processor cores. If Licensee purchases a 2-CPU Production Software license, then each CPU to which it applies such license must reside in the same Computer. In the event that Licensee desires to apply 2-CPU Production Software licenses to Virtual Machines, then (c) for the Standard version of the Software, the number of 2-CPU licenses required shall be the greater of (i) the number of available physical CPUs for all instances of the Software divided by two (any fractions shall be rounded up for purposes of this provision), or (ii) the total number of Virtual Machines on all Computers on which the Software is installed, and (d) for the Enterprise version of the Software, the number of 2-CPU licenses required shall be the number of physical CPUs on which the Software operates divided by two (any fractions shall be rounded up for purposes of this provision).

So, in answer to the first question - it is not based on how many cores you assign to the VM, but rather how many physical CPUs are on the server that the VM runs on OR how many VMs you are using.  If you only have one VM running ColdFusion 9, and the VMware host server has no more than 2 physical CPUs, then you should be fine with a single Standard license.