developerWorks: Improve Linux Performance

“Performance breakthroughs seem to come in two varieties: easy
and hard. That’s no platitude; the boundary between the two is
surprisingly clear.

“When you hear about some–the easy ones–you clap your hands
and say, ‘wow’ or ‘of course’ or ‘slick.’ Although in some cases it
has taken considerable genius to realize their first application,
they’re easy to understand.

“The other kind involve careful measurement, specific knowledge,
and a fair amount of tuning. These are often both frustratingly and
rewardingly contingent on ‘local conditions’ such as hardware
specifics.

“Good programmers can operate in either the ‘hard’ or ‘easy’
mode. As performance is an important topic for Linux programmers, I
offer a paired collection of four hard and easy tales from real
(programming) life…”

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