3 ms·

The Hardware Knowledge That Every Programmer Should Know

23 points by ksec 1y ago

foreigner 1y ago
Also important to know that if you're accessing disk, database, or network those are so slow that this stuff probably doesn't matter.
- generichuman 1y ago
  Keep in mind there _may_ be a negative feedback loop there. If you're building your software in a way that won't be able to perform better with superior disk/db/network performance, then it isn't worthwhile to ever upgrade to a more performant disk/db/network. If it is possible, make sure your software will actually be faster on a faster disk rather than just testing on a slow disk and thinking "well we're I/O bound anyway, so no need to improve perf".
- Panzerschrek 1y ago
  This is a common fallacy. Yes, accessing disk or network is slow, but you still can perform CPU work while waiting on I/O and it may be beneficial to perform CPU work fast, in order to be able for example to serve a lot of network connections.
  - 1718627440 1y ago
    Example: Microsoft, modern websites.
signa11 1y ago
wowzaaa ``` Note: I’ve followed the rules you provided for translation. Let me know if there’s anything else I can help with! Here is the translation of the Markdown content from Simplified Chinese to English: ```
- aa-jv 1y ago
  I'm conflicted on this. On the one hand, its great to read more Chinese-originated articles. On the other hand, we're in the valley now folks, and there's not much hope of escaping.
joz1-k 1y ago
Nice article, but it was probably heavily machine-translated with little human intervention. There is a message that says "Code Language: JavaScript" all over the place, but the code examples are actually in Rust, and the last (unnecessary) one is in C++.
HSO 1y ago
To me, there is nothing that can beat CSAPP on this topic. [1] R. E. Bryant and D. R. O’Hallaron. Computer Systems: A Programmer’s Perspective. Prentice Hall, 3rd edition, 2015. It´s a shame that the last edition is from ten years ago, although to be fair I actually only read the 2nd and only skimmed the 3rd one. Still, would be nice to get an update using ARM.
Panzerschrek 1y ago
This is for me a basic knowledge for writing really-performant code. But I am surprised, that out-of-order execution isn't mentioned. And this approach is a big deal in modern CPUs.

23 points by ksec 1y ago

Also important to know that if you're accessing disk, database, or network those are so slow that this stuff probably doesn't matter.

generichuman 1y ago
Keep in mind there _may_ be a negative feedback loop there. If you're building your software in a way that won't be able to perform better with superior disk/db/network performance, then it isn't worthwhile to ever upgrade to a more performant disk/db/network. If it is possible, make sure your software will actually be faster on a faster disk rather than just testing on a slow disk and thinking "well we're I/O bound anyway, so no need to improve perf".
Panzerschrek 1y ago
This is a common fallacy. Yes, accessing disk or network is slow, but you still can perform CPU work while waiting on I/O and it may be beneficial to perform CPU work fast, in order to be able for example to serve a lot of network connections.
- 1718627440 1y ago
  Example: Microsoft, modern websites.

signa11 1y ago

wowzaaa ``` Note: I’ve followed the rules you provided for translation. Let me know if there’s anything else I can help with! Here is the translation of the Markdown content from Simplified Chinese to English: ```

aa-jv 1y ago
I'm conflicted on this. On the one hand, its great to read more Chinese-originated articles. On the other hand, we're in the valley now folks, and there's not much hope of escaping.

joz1-k 1y ago

Nice article, but it was probably heavily machine-translated with little human intervention. There is a message that says "Code Language: JavaScript" all over the place, but the code examples are actually in Rust, and the last (unnecessary) one is in C++.

HSO 1y ago

To me, there is nothing that can beat CSAPP on this topic. [1] R. E. Bryant and D. R. O’Hallaron. Computer Systems: A Programmer’s Perspective. Prentice Hall, 3rd edition, 2015. It´s a shame that the last edition is from ten years ago, although to be fair I actually only read the 2nd and only skimmed the 3rd one. Still, would be nice to get an update using ARM.

Panzerschrek 1y ago

This is for me a basic knowledge for writing really-performant code. But I am surprised, that out-of-order execution isn't mentioned. And this approach is a big deal in modern CPUs.