Understanding Software Dynamics
- title
- Understanding Software Dynamics
- type
- book
- summary
- Sites on measuring what software really does on a machine, via the KUtrace kernel tracer
- author
- Richard L. Sites
- year
- 2021
- tags
- performance, observability, systems
- status
- want-to-read
- sources
- eatonphil-bookclub
- created
- 2026-05-12
- updated
- 2026-05-12
Dick Sites (DEC Alpha co-architect, later Google) on observing what software actually does on a real machine: CPU, memory, disk, network, locks, queues. The book is built around KUtrace, Sites's own low-overhead kernel/user tracer, and the working assumption is that traditional sampling profilers lie about the 99th percentile. Read by the eatonphil-bookclub in 2024: cohort page.
Related concepts: gpu-accelerated-terminal (different domain but same "measure, don't guess" frame), spinlock.
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