(Windows) CPU Affinity

[default_ex]

One thing that's always annoyed me using uTorrent is that I can't permanently set the CPU Affinity. If any developer would be kind enough to include this features, below is some information on how to do it. I use this approach in my own game engine to bind threads to specific cores, so I know this method works relatively well across all version of Windows from XP to 7 (no idea on older versions).

The required functions to employ this method are the following which can be found in Kernel32.dll:

- GetCurrentProcess()

- GetCurrentThread()

- GetProcessAffinityMask(hProcess, out lpProcessAffinityMask, out lpSystemAffinityMask)

- SetThreadAffinityMask(hThread, dwThreadAffinityMask)

To gather information about the system that is required:

1) Get the process handle using GetCurrentProcess().

2) Use that to query the process and system affinity mask with GetProcessAffinityMask.

3) Perform a bitwise AND between the process and system mask to mask out any threads which may be unusable by the program.

4) At this point you have a bitmask which is marked 1 for a thread that's available or 0 for a thread that's not available.

To apply your own affinity mask:

1) Assemble a new mask using the one from above as a guide for what bits are valid.

2) Get the thread handle using GetCurrentThread().

3) Call into SetThreadAffinityMask.

4) This must be done on each thread.

[DreadWingKnight]

And what benefit would there be to doing this exactly?