Description
High Performance Computing makes sense of the newest generation of workstations for application programmers and purchasing managers. It covers everything, from the basics of modern workstation architecture, to structuring benchmarks, to squeezing more performance out of critical applications. It also explains what a good compiler can do--and what you have to do yourself. The book closes with a look at the high- performance future: parallel computers and the more "garden variety" shared memory processors that are appearing on people's desktops.
Full Description
This book is a "must" for anyone who needs to worry about computer performance, either as a software developer or as a buyer. But it also provides valuable insights for those among us who do relatively little programming and run mostly third-party application software. Even if you never touch a line of code, High Performance Computing will give you a feel for how the most recent generation of computer hardware works. If you work with computers, you owe it to yourself to understand the new directions that workstation architecture has taken in the last half decade, including RISC-based workstation architectures like DEC Alpha/AXP, the IBM RS/6000 and the HP 9000/700 series.
This book covers everything, from the basics of modern workstation architecture, to structuring benchmarks, to squeezing more performance out of critical applications. It also explains how optimizing compilers work: it discusses what a good compiler can do for you and, more important, what you have to do yourself. The author also discusses techniques for improving memory access patterns and taking advantage of parallelism. The book closes with a look at the high-performance future: parallel computers, including exotic distributed memory multiprocessors, and the more "garden-variety" shared memory processors that are already appearing on people's desktops.
High Performance Computing pays special attention to memory issues; perhaps the most important story in high performance computing (and one you're not likely to be told by vendors) is the increasing disparity between CPU speeds and memory speeds.
Another valuable section of the book discusses the benchmarking process: how to evaluate a computer's performance. Kevin Dowd discusses several of the "standard" industry benchmarks, explaining what they measure and what they don't. He also explains how to set up your own benchmark: how to structure the code, how to measure the results, and how to interpret them.
Colophon
Our look is the result of reader comments, our own experimentation, and feedback from distribution channels. Distinctive covers complement our distinctive approach to technical topics, breathing personality and life into potentially dry subjects. The animal featured on the cover of High Performance Computing is the Northern harrier (also known as the hen harrier or marsh hawk). Unlike most other hawks, this harrier likes to hunt exclusively on the wing-- cruising up to 100 miles a day--and prefers roosting and nesting on the ground. Hunting forays over field and marsh consist of long, low glides powered by intermittant flaps, with an occasional pause to hover briefly. (The Harrier aircraft is named for this characteristic.)
This species is one of the most acrobatic and agile of raptors. During courtship, males perform spectacular aerobatics, marked by tumbling, drifting upside down, 200-foot spiral dives, stalls and wingovers.
Northern harriers prey on a variety of animals--predominately small mammals, birds and reptiles--which they detect with their keen sense of hearing (they are considered the diurnal counterpart of the short-eared owl). An owl-like facial ruff helps reflect sound (such as squeaking mice) to the harrier's sensitive ears. This bird of prey ranges over most temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. UNIX and its attendant programs can be unruly beasts. Nutshell Handbooks(R) help you tame them.
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Edie Freedman designed this cover and the entire UNIX bestiary that appears on other Nutshell Handbooks. The beasts themselves are adapted from 19th-century engravings from the Dover Pictorial Archive. The cover layout was produced with QuarkXPress 3.1 using the ITC Garamond font.
The inside layout was formatted in sqtroff by Lenny Muellner and Kismet McDonough using ITC Garamond Light and ITC Garamond Book fonts, and was designed by Edie Freedman. The figures were created in Aldus Freehand 3.1 by Chris Reilley. The colophon was written by Michael Kalantarian.
