Computers as Components, 2nd Edition

Questions 283

We also need to test programs to make sure they do what we want. Some of our

testing techniques can also be useful in exercising the programs for performance

optimization.

What We Learned

■ We can use data flow graphs to model straight-line code and CDFGs to model

complete programs.

■ Compilers perform numerous tasks,such as generating control flow,assigning

variables to registers, creating procedure linkages, and so on.

■ Remember the performance optimization equation: execution time 

program path  instruction timing.

■ Memory and cache optimizations are very important to performance opti-

mization.

■ Optimizing for power consumption often ...