InfoQ Homepage Performance & Scalability Content on InfoQ
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Dynamic Language Roundup: Python's GIL Gets Overhauled but not Removed, Squeak Comes to Android
The Unladen Swallow project that aims to speed up Python has proposed to be merged into mainstream Python. One of Unladen Swallow's goals was to remove the GIL; a new implementation of Python's GIL by Antoine Pitrou will be fairer and less intrusive on multicore CPUs. Also: Squeak Smalltalk has been ported to Android.
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ConcurrentDictionary, .NET 4.0’s New Thread-Safe Hashtable
The ConcurrentDictionary is a cornerstone in .NET 4.0’s greatly increased emphasis on parallel and concurrent programming. But while vastly superior to what we have seen in the past, it isn’t a panacea and developers need to study its semantics carefully.
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Sun Releases Java 6 Update 18 With Significant Performance Improvements and Windows 7 Support
Sun is updating Java 6 for the first time this year providing fixes for over 300 bugs, plus Windows 7 support, and a significant number of performance improvements. These include a 30%-40% performance gain when using the default Parallel Scavenger garbage collector on machines based on a NUMA architecture with Solaris or Linux as the OS.
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Ruby VM Roundup: 1.9.2 Gets DTrace Support, Rubinius 1.0 RC2 Adds Installers, IronRuby IDEs
Rubinius 1.0RC2 adds binary installers, while Ruby 1.9.2 will get DTrace support. IronRuby moves closer to 1.0 and SharpDevelop 3.1 gains IronRuby support. Also: WEBRick users should consider upgrading to the latest versions of Ruby 1.8.x and 1.9.1 because of a recently discovered vulnerability.
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Json.NET Claims Significant Performance Improvements over Other .NET Serializers
Json.NET is claiming to offer better serialization and deserialization performance than any of the major serializers in .NET including BinaryFormatter. It even performs well against the remarkably fast DataContractSerizalier.
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Clojure 1.1 Adds Transients, Chunked Sequences for Efficiency
Clojure 1.1 RC1 is out and cuts the overhead of functional programming with a few new constructs: transients bring controlled mutability for persistent data structures; chunked sequences make lazy sequences more efficient. InfoQ takes a look at what makes these improvements work.
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Executing Parallel Programs on Multi-core GPUs and CPUs with Accelerator V2
Accelerator V2, currently a preview build, is a .NET managed library easing the task of writing data-parallel programs executed on multi-core CPUs and GPUs.
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GWT 2.0 Comes with a New Performance Tool: Speed Tracer
GWT 2.0’s new features are: Speed Tracer – a performance analysis tool, Development Mode, UiBinder, Layout Panels and more JavaScript code size optimizations.
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8.8.8.8, A DNS Number for Faster Browsing
Google is offering two DNS servers for public use, namely 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4, in an attempt to further speed up browsing.
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JRuby's New IR Paves the Way for Future Performance Improvements
A new intermediate representation (IR) for JRuby code enables many optimizations and could bring the next performance boost. InfoQ talked to Subbu Sastry who works on the IR.
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Evented I/O for Javascript with Google V8-based Node.js
Node.js allows scalable ѕtandalone Javascript server programs by bundling Google's V8 with libraries for event-based I/O. InfoQ takes a look at what makes Node.js tick.
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Hyper-communication in Silverlight 4
For better bi-directional communication, a new communication protocol, Net.TCP, was introduced since .NET Framework 3.0 as part of WCF. Net.TCP is now available in the coming Silverlight 4 improving the throughput and the number of connections many times compared to HTTP Polling Duplex.
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MagLev Ruby VM Now Available, Brings GemStone's Persistence to Ruby
The long awaited MagLev Ruby implementation, based on GemStone Smalltalk, is now available in a public alpha release. While not quite ready to run Rails, it does support frameworks like Rack and Sinatra. MagLev comes with full support for GemStone's mature distribution and persistence features.
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Ruby VM Roundup: MacRuby 0.5 Beta 2 Adds AOT Tooling, Rubinius 0.13 Released
Beta 2 of MacRuby 0.5 improves compatibility and adds new tools for Ahead of Time (AOT) compilation and building standalone applications. Rubinius 0.13 was released with improved performance using LLVM, a JIT and a new compiler.
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Performance Measured by the Penny
Cloud computing is a game changer for developers. Not because it requires a new architectural model, that is driven as much by fads and fashion as it is by actual hardware requirements. Nor is it the seemingly endless capacity with near-perfect scalability that the cloud is promising. The game changer is how poorly performing code now has a real price in hard currency.