CPU Core Pinning

CPU core pinning, also known as processor affinity, is the practice of binding a specific software process or thread to a dedicated CPU core. This prevents the operating system from moving the process between different cores, which can cause cache misses and performance degradation.

In trading systems, pinning critical threads ensures that they have exclusive access to the CPU's resources, including L1 and L2 caches. This leads to more consistent and predictable execution times, which is essential for low-latency strategies.

It is a standard technique for eliminating non-deterministic behavior in high-performance applications. By isolating tasks, developers can achieve finer control over the system's performance.