Performance improvement techniques
Microprocessors - Architectures and performances

Let's recall the basic performance equation (see article [E 3 550]):

time/task = instruction/task * cycle/instruction * time/cycle.

The significance attributed to these factors is as follows:

• cycle/instruction * time/cycle: native performance (basic performance unrelated to any application) ;

• instructions/task * cycle/instruction * time/cycle: normalized performance (performance in relation to the task in question, which determines the "profile" in terms of instructions executed).

Before turning to the presentation of...