Code Optimization: Effective Memory Usage [ILLUSTRATED] (Paperback)

by Kris Kaspersky (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
A guide to optimizing programs on the PC and Unix platforms, this book covers the expediency of optimization and the methods to increase the speed of programs via optimization. Discussed are typical mistakes made by programmers that lessen the performance of the system along with easily implemented solutions. Detailed descriptions of the devices and mechanism of interaction of the computer components, effective ways of programming, and a technique for optimizing programs, are provided. Programmers will also learn how to effectively implement programming methods in a high-level language that is usually done in assembler with particular attention given to the RAM subsystem. The working principles of the RAM and the way in which it is coupled with the processor as well as a description of programming methods that allows programmers to overclock the memory to reach maximum performance are included.

About the Author
Kris Kaspersky is a technical writer and the author of articles on various aspects of hacking, disassembling, and code optimization. He has dealt with many issues relating to security and system programming including compiler development, optimization techniques, security mechanism research, real-time OS kernel creation, and writing antivirus programs.

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: A-List Publishing (September 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931769249
• ISBN-13: 978-1931769242
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #854,438 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Knowing how to access memory!, June 2, 2007

By	Olivier Langlois "www.OlivierLanglois.net" (Montreal, Quebec Canada) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book has been a revelation to me. Prior to read this book, all I knew was that memory access was expensive. This book will teach you how to organize your data in memory and how to access it to improve your program performance and most of the time without having to use assembly programming. It covers x86 memory organization and the interface between the processor and the memory and there is a whole chapter covering x86 processor cache memory. To me, the most shocking information contained in this book is a C implementation of memcpy() that outbeats VC++ implementation by 25%-30%!!!

This book is not for novices but if you are ready to change your perception forever of the x86 programming, this book is highly recommended!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good book (goofs notwithstanding), March 2, 2006

By	J Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt - See all my reviews

I've recently read this book and found it rather illuminating; every chapter had something I've learned from. As to CompierGuy's review, yes, with great surprise I did see this silly statement he's quoting; and indeed the idea that optimization can eliminate most programming bugs is preposterous. However, it is an isolated incident -- even the chapter it's in is very enlightening overall (for example, if you ever wondered, but couldn't figure out, why VC's TRACE macro resolves to what it resolves to, after reading this chapter you will understand). And so I think the silly "optimization" phrase can be ascribed to the substandard translation/editing: the publisher, A-list, seems to be a cheesy russian outfit trying to capitalize on the rapidly passing computing fad by printing a lot of padded junk with the word "Hacking" in the titles. That said, I think Kaspersky's books are an exception to the rule, although I wish they were better translated/edited.

All in all, I feel "CompilerGuy" is unfair in his criticism: he says the list of egregious errors is too long to quote and comes up with a single example -- the one and only silly phrase. Having read this book, I think that CompilerGuy's review is groundless, but perhaps I'm wrong, and being always keen to learn more, I'd be interested to see a few more examples off of this mentioned but unsubstantiated, supposedly too-long-to-quote list of "painfully wrong statements, outright speculation, and serious lack of insight".

The bottom line: if you can get past unidiomatic writing and obvious snafus like the one quoted by CompilerGuy, you'll find the book useful; it has a lot of good information and thought of a rather uncommon for what's currently in print kind.

10 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Groundbreaking, Holistic, November 30, 2003

By	Christian Beaumont (Issaquah, WA USA) - See all my reviews

I have never seen any book take such a holistic approach to the art of optimization. Sure there are plenty of books out there that talk about loop unrolling, cache alignment and instruction scheduling, but there are none like this one. You'd better hold on tight though this book is not for the faint of heart. Kris takes you on a detailed tour of the memory architecture of contemporary (PIII, P4 and Athlon) machines, examining in great detail the precise costs associated with each and every memory access. Only in this book will you find a comparison of timing between DRAM, FPM, EDO BEDO, SDRAM, DDR SDRAM, RDRAM. The text although straight and to the point is sparingly littered with amusing and sometimes sarcastic comments that work well to lighten the deep subject matter.

My only complaints are that the text reads as if it has been translated from Russian (Which it probably has) and that there are too few chapters and too many sections.

If you are serious about optimization techniques - read this book.