For general programs, i.e. programs not meant to be run a exact particular machine, it is better to focus on better algorithms rather than better code. In this

For general programs, i.e. programs not meant to be run a exact particular machine, it is better to focus on better algorithms rather than better code. In this case it is useful to look at "Cache-oblivious algorithms": Cache oblivious algorithms allow you to write code that performs well regardless of the architecture and processor model they are run on. From Wikipedia: «a cache-oblivious algorithm (or cache-transcendent algorithm) is an algorithm designed to take advantage of a CPU cache without having the size of the cache (or the length of the cache lines, etc.) as an explicit parameter.» http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cache-oblivious_algorithm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cache-oblivious_algorithm Sadly the field is new and there are not many such algorithms around, but you can already find algorithms for many common tasks such as traversing linked lists and calculating FFTs.