CPUCapabilities.NET

The .NET Framework does not feature a method to acquire hardware information about the CPU aside from the architecture it runs on. There are WMI classes that can gather various details about the CPU, but the processor’s capabilities (such as instruction set extensions) are not provided.

To the rescue comes CPUCapabilities.NET, a development tool that allows developers to integrate functions related to system information retrieval into their applications running on the .NET Framework. The package includes a C++ helper library that can detect the CPU specifications, along with a wrapper C# class whose mission is to encapsulate the required invoke calls. There are separate DLL files for 32-bit (x86) and 64‑Bit (x64) architectures.

There is a readme file available, where you can read details about the capabilities of the library and the managed API. Here, you can read about the development background and a few details about using the API.

The package also comes with a demonstration application, which enables you to see what the library can do and check the detailed information that can be extracted with its help. The list includes the CPU architecture, the number of logical cores, the processor’s vendor and brand strings, the CPU model and its family. The instruction set extensions are also revealed.