Appendix C

Time measurement

C.1 Introduction

High-resolution measurement of time is a critical capability for calculating performance and keeping track of events in your system, e.g., for debugging purposes. After all, the bottom line is how much time we can gain by introducing threads, GPU computation and the like in an application.

Time measurement can be identified as absolute or relative. The concept of absolute or universal time dates back to Isaac Newton, and many will argue that in the post-general-relativity era there is no such thing as absolute time! In our context, absolute time has no place either, since we are concerned with time spans, as in relative time.

A common pattern that is used in all the sections that follow is that ...

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