About: A sidequest is an optional, not graded, not evaluated in anyway exploration into a topic. Sometimes it is just cool to know what is out there in the world. Sidequests come with a little descritions, presentations, related resources, and a sample code or exercise you can try. Side quests are likely a good area for further independent studies, research project, thesis, etc.


Profile-Guided Optimizations


Profiled-guided optimizations are a way to improve the performance of a given application by using previous executions of a program to inform the compiler. Feedback-driven optimizations Maybe measure the variability of each function?

Problem Statement

Gathering a good profile for a piece of software that may change over time(i.e a game) is difficult to

Assumptions made with PGO data is that it is always the same, and PGO may actually 'hurt' performance if behavior changes. Gathering the data also takes time.

Proposed Exercise

Visualize the quality of the profile compared to other profiles.

Proposed Evaluation

A visual tool that helps select the best overall profile during the entirety of the program. Compare performance of program with one specific profile, multiple, and no profiling.

Outcomes of this Project

(Where this could lead)

Key Resources

(The first resource you should read)

Additional Resources