Performance Basics

4.1 Chip Architecture

Chip architecture is important for performance because it dictates what operations can be done in parallel, as well as which control units feed into which others.

Explanation of terms.

Performance considerations:

  • For each cycle, how may instuctions can be executed by the floating point unit(FPU)?

  • Key: keep data flowing to/from registers
Tricks and tips for getting the best performance are given in the Single Processor Performance Considerations module.