This paper revealed me some of the things than modern designs have adopted, which the regular uninformed coder would never notice (which he may not need to most of the times). But recently I have been looking into HFT computers and I see that these things are running C code (a friend works at a small startup who said they use C programs for most of the orders) on regular computers with most even using off the shelf hardware (intels 9900KS and 9990XE are hot targets and anandtech and servethehome have shown off some hardware). HFTs are highly sensitive to optimizations and it is my understanding that the lower they go to the hardware, the better returns given how competitive it can get.
With so much in the middle from a high level C program to low level instructions on a CPU, I wonder if we will see companies like JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley (big ones with money and time to invest) enter the chip business heavily. This could then bring back some of those optimizations to the consumer space and startups in the area of fast and efficient C code then might get into trouble. As of now this area seems to be open to compete.
With so much in the middle from a high level C program to low level instructions on a CPU, I wonder if we will see companies like JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley (big ones with money and time to invest) enter the chip business heavily. This could then bring back some of those optimizations to the consumer space and startups in the area of fast and efficient C code then might get into trouble. As of now this area seems to be open to compete.