Implications: Subtle Differences

The advanced set of optimizations employed in today’s processors results in an interesting set of consequences. We observe that execution times depend on the following characteristics, which can be divided into three groups:

Type of instruction and the complexity of the operation. Some operations execute much faster than others.
Operand values. Certain multiple cycle algorithms prove faster for trivial inputs. For example, multiplying a value by 0 is generally rather trivial and can be done quickly.
The memory location from which the data needed for the instruction must be retrieved. Cached memory is available sooner.

The importance, prevalence, and impact of each of these characteristics depends on the exact nature ...

Get Silence on the Wire now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.