Performance Libraries

Abstract

In this chapter we discuss performance optimization libraries which concentrate on memory issues. We first describe the Google Perftool set of tools which include the tcmalloc memory allocation and thread-key based memory allocation library. Perftools also contains a heap-checker and heap-profiler, their usage alongwith examples which are optimized by their usage is shown in this chapter. We compare the performance of perftools memory allocation with APR and the results are presented in this chapter. Another technique for memory optimization is the use of garbage collection. This is included in Java and Common Lisp family of languages, but using the Boehm garbage collector, we also use garbage collection (GC) in C and C++ programs. Examples using Boehm GC are presented in this chapter, and we investigate the impact of GC on performance and memory consumption.