Applied Visual Technologies|DarkScience XCPU v1.0

Applied Visual Technologies|DarkScience

XCPU v1.0

May 2, 2001

*** This utility may be distributed freely in accordance with the following license. ***

This application (XCPU v1.0 - dated May 2, 2001) may be distributed freely, in unmodified form. Any distribution of this application must include the XCPU.EXE binary file and this documentation. No cost or fees may be charged for this application other than a nominal fee for distribution media, if necessary.

Applied Visual Technologies makes no warranties, expressed or implied, and use of this software is done solely at the risk of the user. Any damage or loss of resources incurred through the use of this software is not the responsibility of Applied Visual Technologies, LLC.

Any unauthorized sale, distribution or modification of this distribution should be reported to: abuse@darkscience.com

*** End License Agreement ***

*** USAGE ***

XCPU was created to aid those running multiprocessor systems. It allows the execution of any application from the command line and will assign that application any desired CPU affinity and priority level.

Available command-line arguments:

-a Assigns CPU affinity for any combination of processors ranging from 1 to 32 CPUs. CPU values are zero-based, meaning that the first CPU in a system will be CPU 0, the second will be CPU 1 and so on. CPU affinity settings are specified by a list of CPU numbers separated by commas.

-p Specifies the desired priority level for the application being launched. Available values are 1, 2, 3 or 4. These values translate into 1:Idle Priority, 2:Normal Priority, 3:High Priority and 4:RealTime Priority.

-c Marks the start of the desired command line. Command line can be any valid DOS/Windows command line, including multiple arguments up to a maximum length of 2048 characters. Be aware that any text following the –c parameter will be considered the intended command line, so the –a and –p arguments MUST come before –c.

Only the –c parameter and following command line specification is required for XCPU to operate. However, this will default to launching the target application with an affinity for all available CPUs and normal priority – the same as simply launching it without XCPU.

Examples:

xcpu –a 1 –p 3 –c d:\lightwave\programs\lightwav.exe

This command line will launch the application, lightwave.exe, with an affinity for CPU 1 (the second CPU) and high-priority.

xcpu –p 2 –a 2,3 –c c:\winnt\notepad.exe test.txt

This command line will launch notepad.exe with the document test.txt and will assign an affinity for CPUs 2 and 3 (the 3^rd and 4^th CPUs) and a normal priority level.

UNC paths are also valid in the command line and highly encouraged when launching applications that are located on a network volume. Example:

xcpu –a 1 –p2 –c \\MyServer\MyShare\MyApp.exe

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