You know those mutiple-choice tests that put you in one of four quadrants based on your answers to a bunch of seemingly irrelevant questions? We’ve all taken them, and if you’re like me they’re kind of like reading your horoscope – it all seems so right and true when you’re reading it, but you wonder if it would still seem just as right and true if the horoscopes got jumbled at random?

Well, I took one of these tests a while back that actually told me something about myself – it was the “Learning-Style Inventory” test, and what it said about me is that I’m waaaayyy over at the end of the scale when it comes to visual thinking. That gave me an insight into the way my brain works that I’ve found really helpful ever since. So, this next bit was right up my alley, but I’m guessing you’ll like it too.

We read a lot lately about NUMA architecture and how it presents a fundamental change in the way we approach writing efficient code: it’s no longer about the CPU, it’s all about RAM. We all nod and say “Sure, I get that!” Well, I thought I got it too, but until I saw this web page, I really didn’t.

See the full discussion at http://overbyte.com.au/index.php/overbyte-blog/entry/optimisation-lesson-3-the-memory-bottleneck.