Performance: Hardware and Software Optimization

This lecture delves into the evolution of performance metrics in computing, comparing historical systems like VAX-11/780 to modern processors. It explores the impact of processor frequency, memory speed, cache efficiency, and the importance of execution time. The lecture discusses the concept of speedup, cycles per instruction (CPI), and instructions per cycle (IPC) to improve performance. It also covers Amdahl's Law, benchmarks like SPEC CPU2006, and the relationship between hardware implementation and performance. The instructor emphasizes the significance of architectural and organizational ideas in driving performance improvements since the mid-1980s.