The basics of performance

Evaluating system performance requires an understanding of the dynamics of program execution.

System workload
An accurate and complete definition of a system's workload is critical to predicting or understanding its performance.
Performance objectives
After defining the workload that your system will have to process, you can choose performance criteria and set performance objectives based on those criteria.
Program execution model
To clearly examine the performance characteristics of a workload, a dynamic rather than a static model of program execution is necessary, as shown in the following figure.
Hardware hierarchy
Usually, the time required to move from one hardware level to another consists primarily of the latency of the lower level (the time from the issuing of a request to the receipt of the first data).
Software hierarchy
To run, a program must also progress through a series of steps in the software hierarchy.
System tuning
After efficiently implementing application programs, further improvements in the overall performance of your system becomes a matter of system tuning.

Parent topic: Performance management