Essentials of Computer Organization and Architecture, 5th Edition

11.5 CPU PERFORMANCE OPTIMIZATION

CPU performance has long been the principal focus of system optimization efforts. There is no single way to enhance CPU performance, because CPU throughput is affected by a multitude of factors. For instance, program code affects the instruction count; the compiler influences both the instruction count and the average clock cycles per instruction; the ISA determines the instruction count and the average clock cycles per instruction; and the actual hardware organization establishes the clock cycles per instruction and the clock cycle time.

Potential CPU optimization techniques include integrated floating-point units, parallel execution units, specialized instructions, instruction pipelining, branch prediction, ...