Flexible Multi-Core, Multi-CPU Configuration Settings

TOP Server is designed to support and work well with systems with multiple CPUs, multiple cores per CPU, and hyperthreading. All of these combine in Windows to be what are called "logical cores" and can result in a lot of parallel threads in a CPU. TOP Server leverages these by automatically spreading work across all the logical cores. Since each Channel in TOP Server's configuration is it's own thread, you can build a configuration that automatically uses many threads and then lets the load be automatically spread.

Advanced settings allow you to further tailor how TOP Server uses the logical cores as shown below.

Accessing Advanced Settings

The settings for adjusting processor usage are located by right-clicking on the Administration icon in the Windows system tray and selecting Settings, which launches the TOP Server Administration Settings menu

Note: If the TOP Server Administration icon is not available, it can be launched by going to Start | Programs | Software Toolbox | TOP Server 6 | TOP Server 6 - Administration.

Runtime Options Settings

The Runtime Process section of the TOP Server Settings offers configurable settings for how the TOP Server runtime process will run on the PC and interact with the processors and cores.

Advanced Processor Settings include:

Processor Affinity
Process Priority

Processor Affinity

The Processor Affinity section allows configuration of which processors will be used by TOP Server on machines having multiple processors & cores available. When a machine has multiple processors, cores and supports hyper-threading, the total # of logical cores shown in task manager will be the number of processors shown here.

By default, TOP Server will select all available processors and distribute the processing load evenly across all processors for best TOP Server performance.

You can also be selective with the processors used by TOP Server to restrict processor usage as you see fit.

On machines with multiple resource intensive processes in addition to TOP Server, this allows fine tuning of your overall system performance with respect to processor usage.

Depending on how much CPU time is required for each process, you can restrict TOP Server to use fewer CPU’s for optimum system performance.

Process Priority

The Process Priority setting allows you to mark the TOP Server runtime service (server_runtime.exe) to receive processor resources at a higher priority than other services/processes running on the same machine.

If TOP Server is installed on a machine where it is the primary application and you wish for TOP Server to receive higher processing priority, this setting allows you to specify that preference.

The Default setting is Normal priority (unchecked).

Note: Microsoft recommends against setting applications to a high priority as it can adversely affect other applications running on the same PC.