Windows 2000 Performance Guide

Chapter 4.  Optimizing Application Performance

The best medicine for most performance problems is invariably prevention. Despite advances in software performance engineering,^[12] developing complex computer programs that are both functionally correct and efficient remains a difficult and time-consuming task. This chapter specifically looks at tuning Windows 2000 applications running on Intel hardware from the perspective of optimizing processor cycles and resource usage. Fine-tuning the execution path of code remains one of the fundamental disciplines of performance engineering.

To bring this topic into focus, we describe a case study where an application designed and developed specifically for the Microsoft Windows 2000 environment is subjected to a rigorous analysis of its performance using several commercially available CPU execution profiling tools. One of the development tools we used requires an understanding of the internal workings of Intel processors, and justifies a lengthy excursion into the area of Intel processor hardware performance.

The performance of Intel processor hardware is the focus of the second half of this chapter. We will look inside an Intel x86 microprocessor to dissect the complex mechanisms employed to execute computer instructions. You may encounter situations where a background and understanding of Intel processor hardware is relevant to solving a performance or capacity problem. This chapter also introduces a set of Intel processor hardware performance ...