Search icon CANCEL
Subscription
0
Cart icon
Your Cart (0 item)
Close icon
You have no products in your basket yet
Arrow left icon
Explore Products
Best Sellers
New Releases
Books
Videos
Audiobooks
Learning Hub
Free Learning
Arrow right icon
Arrow up icon
GO TO TOP
The Art of Writing Efficient Programs

You're reading from   The Art of Writing Efficient Programs An advanced programmer's guide to efficient hardware utilization and compiler optimizations using C++ examples

Arrow left icon
Product type Paperback
Published in Oct 2021
Publisher Packt
ISBN-13 9781800208117
Length 464 pages
Edition 1st Edition
Languages
Tools
Arrow right icon
Author (1):
Arrow left icon
Fedor G. Pikus Fedor G. Pikus
Author Profile Icon Fedor G. Pikus
Fedor G. Pikus
Arrow right icon
View More author details
Toc

Table of Contents (18) Chapters Close

Preface 1. Section 1 – Performance Fundamentals
2. Chapter 1: Introduction to Performance and Concurrency FREE CHAPTER 3. Chapter 2: Performance Measurements 4. Chapter 3: CPU Architecture, Resources, and Performance 5. Chapter 4: Memory Architecture and Performance 6. Chapter 5: Threads, Memory, and Concurrency 7. Section 2 – Advanced Concurrency
8. Chapter 6: Concurrency and Performance 9. Chapter 7: Data Structures for Concurrency 10. Chapter 8: Concurrency in C++ 11. Section 3 – Designing and Coding High-Performance Programs
12. Chapter 9: High-Performance C++ 13. Chapter 10: Compiler Optimizations in C++ 14. Chapter 11: Undefined Behavior and Performance 15. Chapter 12: Design for Performance 16. Assessments 17. Other Books You May Enjoy

Preface

The art of high-performance programming is making a comeback. I started programming in the days when the programmer had to know where every bit of data went (sometimes quite literally – with switches on the front panel). Now, computers have more than enough power for everyday tasks. Sure, there have always been domains where there is never enough computing power. But most programmers could get away with writing inefficient code. This is not a bad thing, by the way: free from performance constraints, the programmer could focus on making the code better in other ways.

The very first thing this book explains, then, is why more and more programmers are forced to pay attention to performance and efficiency again. This will set the tone for the entire book because it defines the methodology we will be using in subsequent chapters: knowledge about performance must ultimately come from measurements, and every performance-related claim must be supported by data.

There are five components, five elements that together determine the performance of a program. First, we delve into the details and explore the low-level foundation of all things performance: our computing hardware (no switches – promise, those days are gone). From the individual components – processors and memory – we work our way up to multiprocessor computing systems. Along the way, we learn about the memory model, the cost of data sharing, and even lock-free programming.

The second component of high-performance programming is an efficient use of the programming language. It is at this point that the book becomes much more C++-specific (other languages have their own favorite inefficiencies). Following closely is the third element, the skill to help the compiler improve the performance of your programs.

The fourth component is the design. Arguably, it should be the first one: if the design is not done with performance as one of its explicit goals, it is almost impossible to add good performance later as an afterthought. We study designing for performance last, however, since this is a high-level concept and it brings together all the knowledge we will have acquired earlier.

The final, fifth element of high-performance programming is you, the reader. Your knowledge and skill will ultimately determine the result. To help you learn, the book includes many examples that can be used for hands-on exploration and self-study. The learning does not have to stop after you turn over the last page.

lock icon The rest of the chapter is locked
Next Section arrow right
Register for a free Packt account to unlock a world of extra content!
A free Packt account unlocks extra newsletters, articles, discounted offers, and much more. Start advancing your knowledge today.
Unlock this book and the full library FREE for 7 days
Get unlimited access to 7000+ expert-authored eBooks and videos courses covering every tech area you can think of
Renews at $19.99/month. Cancel anytime
Banner background image