Other Resources

Understanding the capabilities of the specific processors and the underlying architecture on which your application will run is the foundation of optimization. Intel® distributes many hardware and software development resources that can help better understand how to optimize application source code for specific architectures.

Note

In addition to the resources listed in this topic, the compiler documentation contains a list of other useful resources in Related Publications.

Processor Information

You can find detailed information about processor numbers, capabilities, and technical specifications, along with documentation, at the Intel® Processor Spec Finder (http://processorfinder.intel.com/) or Intel® Processor Numbers (http://www.intel.com/products/processor_number/) web sites.

You can install the Intel® Processor Identification Utility to identify characteristics of the processor inside a system. There are Windows and bootable versions of the utility available (http://www.intel.com/support/processors/tools/piu/).

Architecture Information

The architecture manuals provide specific details about the basic architecture, supported instruction sets, programming guidelines for specific operating systems, and performance monitoring.

The optimization manuals provide insight for developing high-performance applications for Intel® architectures.

IA-32 and Intel® 64 architectures

Manuals: http://www.intel.com/design/pentium4/manuals/index_new.htm

• Intel® 64 and IA-32 Architectures Optimization Reference Manual

• Intel® 64 and IA-32 Architectures Software Developer's Manual, Volume 1: Basic Architecture

• Intel® 64 and IA-32 Architectures Software Developer's Manual, Volume 2A: Instruction Set Reference, A-M

• Intel® 64 and IA-32 Architectures Software Developer's Manual, Volume 2B: Instruction Set Reference, N-Z

• Intel® 64 and IA-32 Architectures Software Developer's Manual, Volume 3A: System Programming Guide

• Intel® 64 and IA-32 Architectures Software Developer's Manual, Volume 3B: System Programming Guide

IA-64 Architecture

Manuals: http://www.intel.com/design/itanium/manuals/iiasdmanual.htm

• Intel® Itanium® Architecture Software Developer's Manual - Volume 1: Application Architecture, Revision 2.2

• Intel® Itanium® Architecture Software Developer's Manual - Volume 2: System Architecture, Revision 2.2

• Intel® Itanium® Architecture Software Developer's Manual - Volume 3: Instruction Set Reference, Revision 2.2

Manuals: http://www.intel.com/design/itanium2/manuals/251110.htm

• Itanium® 2 Processor Reference Manual for Software Development and Optimization

Optimization Strategy Resources

For more information on advanced or specialized optimization strategies, refer to the Developer Centers under the Intel® Software Network web site (http://softwarecommunity.intel.com/isn/home/).

More specifically, refer to the articles, community forums, and links to additional resources in the listed areas of the following Developer Centers:

Tools and Technologies:

• Intel EM64T (Intel® 64 architecture)

• Threading/Multi-core

• Intel® Software Products

Environments:

• High Performance Computing

Intel® Processors:

• Itanium® Processor Family

• Pentium® 4 Processor

• Intel® Xeon® Processor