C++ High Performance - ebook

Write code that scales across CPU registers, multi-core, and machine clusters

Key Features

• Explore concurrent programming in C++
• Identify memory management problems
• Use SIMD and STL containers for performance improvement

Book Description

C++ is a highly portable language and can be used to write both large-scale applications and performance-critical code. It has evolved over the last few years to become a modern and expressive language. This book will guide you through optimizing the performance of your C++ apps by allowing them to run faster and consume fewer resources on the device they're running on without compromising the readability of your code base.

The book begins by helping you measure and identify bottlenecks in a C++ code base. It then moves on by teaching you how to use modern C++ constructs and techniques. You'll see how this affects the way you write code. Next, you'll see the importance of data structure optimization and memory management, and how it can be used efficiently with respect to CPU caches. After that, you'll see how STL algorithm and composable Range V3 should be used to both achieve faster execution and more readable code, followed by how to use STL containers and how to write your own specialized iterators.

Moving on, you’ll get hands-on experience in making use of modern C++ metaprogramming and reflection to reduce boilerplate code as well as in working with proxy objects to perform optimizations under the hood. After that, you’ll learn concurrent programming and understand lock-free data structures. The book ends with an overview of parallel algorithms using STL execution policies, Boost Compute, and OpenCL to utilize both the CPU and the GPU.

What you will learn

• Benefits of modern C++ constructs and techniques
• Identify hardware bottlenecks, such as CPU cache misses, to boost performance
• Write specialized data structures for performance-critical code
• Use modern metaprogramming techniques to reduce runtime calculations
• Achieve efficient memory management using custom memory allocators
• Reduce boilerplate code using reflection techniques
• Reap the benefits of lock-free concurrent programming
• Perform under-the-hood optimizations with preserved readability using proxy objects
• Gain insights into subtle optimizations used by STL algorithms
• Utilize the Range V3 library for expressive C++ code
• Parallelize your code over CPU and GPU, without compromising readability

Who this book is for

If you're a C++ developer looking to improve the speed of your code or simply wanting to take your skills up to the next level, then this book is perfect for you.

Viktor Sehr is the main developer at Toppluva, working with a highly-optimized graphics engine aimed for mobile hardware. He has 10 years of professional experience using C++, with real-time graphics, audio, and architectural design as his focus areas. Through his career, he has developed medical visualization software at Mentice and Raysearch Laboratories as well as real-time audio applications at Propellerhead Software. Viktor holds an M.S. in media science from Linköping University. Björn Andrist is a freelance software consultant currently focusing on audio applications. For more than 10 years, he has been working professionally with C++ in projects ranging from Unix server applications to real-time audio applications on desktop and mobile. In the past, he has also taught courses in algorithms and data structures, concurrent programming, and programming methodologies. Björn holds a BS in computer engineering and an MS in computer science from KTH Royal Institute of Technology.