“The Godfather II” of Tech Book Sequels

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

I’m going to tell you something that you probably already know. . . sequels usually suck. Oh, they got me when they told me that Denzel Washington would be in Gladiator II, that interminable dud of a film. How about that pitiful money-grab The Hangover II? And the “My Belly Laugh” differential between Bad Santa and Bad Santa 2 is probably the largest in my life as a moviegoer. And don’t even get me started on Joker: Folie à Deux – I don’t even wanna watch the *original* anymore after seeing that crap! But every now and then you get The Godfather II, a follow-up so sublime that I get almost as much enjoyment watching *others* experience it for the 1st time. Tech books follow a similar sequel trend, for the most part. But Performance Analysis & Tuning for Modern CPUs – Second Edition¹Paid affiliate link is The Godfather II of tech book sequels.

“What’s so great about this sequel, Mark?”

I’m glad you asked. Admittedly, the first edition was pretty Intel-heavy. But this time around, we made sure to incorporate more AMD-specific information, as well. Not only that, but we’ve included a completely different architecture – ARM. And if that weren’t enough, we fleshed out this sequel with comprehensive Case Studies and Hands-on exercises!

Also, while there were only a handful of us contributors for the first edition, we doubled that this time around. Along with Denis and myself, we added:

• Jan Wassenberg
• Swarup Sahoo
• Alois Kraus
• Marco Castorina
• Lally Singh
• University of Zaragoza, Spain

Dick Sites returned as a reviewer, and was accompanied this time around by the creator of every developers’ favorite online tool, Matt Godbolt of “Compiler Explorer” fame.²While Matt holds the crown for the illest last name in Tech, I remain at the top of the heap for best middle name, El Toro.

“Will I be lost if I haven’t read the original?”

This is where “The Godfather” comparison begins to break down. I would never advise anyone to watch The Godfather II without having observed the Corleone family dynamic and Michael’s evolution in the original film. But that’s simply not the case with Performance Analysis & Tuning on Modern CPUs – Second Edition. This edition starts from the same base as the original and then expands upon it. We’ve updated/corrected issues in the first edition, buttressed each chapter with additional material, and even added new topics that are missing from the original – e.g., Continuous Profiling. In fact, you’re better off just reading the sequel if you never got around to reading the original.

A Sequel that Won’t Disappoint

You might be thinking, “Hey, Mark, why should I trust your word when you’re one of the Contributing Authors?” Good question. You shouldn’t trust *just* my word. Read the reviews from people like Dick Sites and Matt Godbolt. Or the verified reviews of Amazon customers. Then, after doing your due diligence, get one for yourself and for the techie family, friends, and colleagues in your life just in time for gift-giving this Holiday Season. Give them the gift of The Godfather II of tech books.

• 1
  Paid affiliate link
• 2
  While Matt holds the crown for the illest last name in Tech, I remain at the top of the heap for best middle name, El Toro.