How to Make Things Faster

Glossary

algorithm

A finite sequence of well-defined, computer-implementable instructions, typically to solve a class of specific problems or to perform a computation.

Amdahl’s law

A mathematical model used to find the maximum expected improvement to an overall system when only part of the system is improved.

antipattern

A commonly occurring attempted solution to a problem that generates decidedly negative consequences.

Bates numbering

A referencing system used in legal, medical, and business fields in which each individual line in an arbitrarily large set of documents is uniquely identified for rapid retrieval.

bottleneck

The resource that dominates the response time for a given task execution.

capacity

The amount of a resource that is available to provide service in response to requests for service.

cause

A reason for a condition or action.

cell

A single data element within a table, which belongs to exactly one column and one row.

change control

The policies and procedures that govern how changes can be applied to a system.

client

1. A person or company to whom a vendor is providing a service. 2. Hardware or software that accesses a remote service on another computer.

coherency delay

The duration that a request spends waiting for data to become consistent (coherent) by virtue of point-to-point exchange.

column

A vertical group of cells within a table.

central processing unit (CPU)

The electronic circuitry that executes the instructions comprising a computer program.

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