The Role of Computer Performance
• Designing high performance computers is one of the major goals of any computer architect.
• As a result, assessing the performance of computer hardware is at the heart of computer design and greatly affect the demand and market value of the computer.
• However, measuring performance of a computer system is not a straight-forward task:
➜ Which application to use to measure performance?
➜ What component of computer to measure (e. g., processor, I/O, cache)?
➜ How do other parameters affect performance (e. g.,OS, compiler)?
How do you define performance (e. g., faster, or most completed jobs during a certain period of time) - execution time vs. throughput.
Example
Do the following changes to a computer system increase throughput, decrease response time, or both?
1) Replacing the processor in a computer with a faster version.
2) Adding additional processors to a system that uses multiple processors for separate tasks - for example handling an airline reservation system.