How to write fast (low level) code? [closed]

Answer 1

Check out: http://www.agner.org/optimize/

Answer 2

An interesting book about bit manipulation and smart ways of doing low-level things is Hacker's Delight.

This is definitely worth a read for everyone interested in low-level coding.

Answer 3

C and C++ are usually the languages that are used for this because of their speed (ignoring Fortran as you didn't mention it). What you can take advantage of (which the icc compiler does a lot) is SSE instruction sets for a lot of floating point number crunching. Another thing that is possible is the use of CUDA and Stream API's for Nvidia/Ati respectively to do VERY fast floating point operations on the graphics card while leaving the CPU free to do the rest of the work.

Answer 4

I learned a lot from the book Inner Loops. It's ancient now, in computer terms, but it's very well written and Rick Booth is so enthusiastic about his subject I would still say it's worth looking at to see the kind of mindset you need to make a CPU fly.

Answer 5

It's been a few years since I read it, but Write Great Code, Volume 2: Thinking Low-Level, Writing High-Level by Randall Hyde was quite good. It gives good examples of how C/C++ code translates into assembly, e.g. what really happens when you have a big switch statement.

Also, altdevblogaday.com is focused on game development, but the programming articles might give you some ideas.

Answer 6

Drepper's What Every Programmer Should Know About Memory [pdf] is a good reference to one aspect of low-level optimisation.