setting cpu affinity for linux kernel, not process [closed]

Answer 1

Kernel work on behalf of processes will always happen on the CPU that makes the request. You can steer interrupts, though. Look at /proc/interrupts to identify the interrupts you want to move (say everything matching eth0) and set the affinity by echoing a hexadecimal mask to /proc/irq/XXX/smp_affinity.

Answer 2

You should be able to disable the other cores via a kernel command-line option.

Not having the kernel run on a core implies that nothing else can run on that core either. No kernel scheduler and no TLB setup -> no code executing.