Optimization is the act of design and developing systems to take maximum advantage of the resources available. After all, an application that does not perform well will not be a success.

---

by John Sharp, principal technologist, Content Master Ltd. Intel Corp.

Optimization is the act of design and developing systems to take maximum advantage of the resources available. For example, applications can be optimized to benefit from the large quantity of memory available on a particular computer, or the speed of the specific I/O hardware available, or particular features of the processor being used. Even in development environments such as the Java language with Java 2 Enterprise Edition and the Microsoft .NET Framework, where much of the low-level details and hardware-specific code have been abstracted away to a runtime engine, there is much that a designer and developer should do to ensure that applications execute in an optimal manner. An application that does not perform well will not be a success, so the benefits of optimization are as much commercial as they are a simple convenience for end users.

Scope
The purpose of this paper is to describe the benefits of designing optimized systems based on Intel® hardware, and summarizes some of the risks of not doing so.

Why optimize?
As has already been mentioned, the reasons for optimizing an application are essentially commercial; very few consumers will purchase a system that has a reputation for poor performance, especially if a more viable alternative is available for a similar price. In the world of personalized development, performance may also be a contractual or even a legal requirement (through Service Level Agreements). For example, the systems used by many clearing banks must be capable of performing large numbers of transactions in a short period of time, often dictated by regulatory authorities such as the Federal Reserve in the United States. Failure to complete processing within a given timeframe can result in a bank incurring interest charges on the funds not transferred (in many cases, the transactions can total well over a billion dollars, so even one night's interest payments would be considerable), a fine being imposed, or even the loss of a trading license if performance is consistently poor.

What is optimization?
The definition of optimization according to Dictionary.com is "The procedure or procedures used to make a system or design as effective or functional as possible." Optimization is thus a subjective quantity, and how well a system is optimized depends upon the expectations and point of view of the user.