Solaris Application Programming

Book excerpt: SolarisTM Application Programming is a comprehensive guide to optimizing the performance of applications running in your Solaris environment. From the fundamentals of system performance to using analysis and optimization tools to their fullest, this wide-ranging resource shows developers and software architects how to get the most from Solaris systems and applications. Whether you’re new to performance analysis and optimization or an experienced developer searching for the most efficient ways to solve performance issues, this practical guide gives you the background information, tips, and techniques for developing, optimizing, and debugging applications on Solaris. The text begins with a detailed overview of the components that affect system performance. This is followed by explanations of the many developer tools included with Solaris OS and the Sun Studio compiler, and then it takes you beyond the basics with practical, real-world examples. In addition, you will learn how to use the rich set of developer tools to identify performance problems, accurately interpret output from the tools, and choose the smartest, most efficient approach to correcting specific problems and achieving maximum system performance. Coverage includes A discussion of the chip multithreading (CMT) processors from Sun and how they change the way that developers need to think about performance A detailed introduction to the performance analysis and optimization tools included with the Solaris OS and Sun Studio compiler Practical examples for using the developer tools to their fullest, including informational tools, compilers, floating point optimizations, libraries and linking, performance profilers, and debuggers Guidelines for interpreting tool analysis output Optimization, including hardware performance counter metrics and source code optimizations Techniques for improving application performance using multiple processes, or multiple threads An overview of hardware and software components that affect system performance, including coverage of SPARC and x64 processors