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The Art of Computer Systems Performance Analysis "At last, a welcome and needed text for computer professionals who require practical, ready-to-apply techniques for performance analysis. Highly recommended!" -Dr. Leonard Kleinrock University of California, Los Angeles "An entirely refreshing text which has just the right mixture of theory and real world practice. The book is ideal for both classroom instruction and self-study." -Dr. Raymond L. Pickholtz President, IEEE Communications Society "An extraordinarily comprehensive treatment of both theoretical and practical issues." -Dr. Jeffrey P. Buzen Internationally recognized performance analysis expert ". it is the most thorough book available to date" -Dr. Erol Gelenbe Université René Descartes, Paris ". an extraordinary book.. A worthy addition to the bookshelf of any practicing computer or communications engineer" -Dr. Vinton G. Cer??? Chairman, ACM SIGCOMM "This is an unusual object, a textbook that one wants to sit down and peruse. The prose is clear and fluent, but more important, it is witty." -Allison Mankin The Mitre Washington Networking Center Newsletter
Clearly-portrayed wisdom that truly focuses on the art & craft
| Customer Rating:  | I purchased Jain's "The Art of Computer Systems Performance Analysis" for a 3-month graduate course, and I must admit that, in retrospect, I was a bit daunted by its size upon receipt (we were to cover the entire text). Further, I had my doubts about the relevancy of the text in the current environment, given its age.
But I must say, both of these initial questions proved wholly unfounded.
I've never used a text quite like this one before; it is a significant departure from the standard engineering text that weighs heavily on the side of analytical proof and mathematical equations, while foregoing textual elaboration. On the contrary, this book adopts a conversational tone whereby the author develops all of the book's topics in great detail, relying on substantial insight and experience. Truly, a breath of fresh air.
There's such a richness about this text, that a careful read--while admittedly quite time-consuming--is bound to give the reader a sense that he has just become the beneficiary of a heck of a lot of wisdom.
All of this is not to say the text is overly-subjective; in fact, there is plenty of detailed analytical analysis. It is just to say that the book is different, and one that exudes quality communication: it reads more like a lecture than it does lecture notes.
So, back to my initial doubts. It turns out that the verbose depth of material which constitutes the book's 720 pages is really a foundation of its main qualities: it is a very readable and highly-detailed exploration of the art and the craft of performance analysis. And it's for that foundational reason that its age is irrelevant. |
Technology changes, but how you measure it really doesn't
| Customer Rating: | This old book is one of the most valued on my shelf. I was first exposed to it in a graduate class, and I have to say that the book is so good I was not aware that my professor was not a good instructor until I had him a second time in a class where the textbook was less than stellar. Don't judge the book by a quick perusal either. At first glance, especially if you are looking at Part I, it looks like one of those books on Six Sigma that will put you to sleep. In fact, the vast majority of the book is quite interesting.
Part II, "Measurement Techniques and Tools", are where things get interesting. The good part about this entire book is that it uses problems in the analysis of computer systems as the basis of presentation for all tools presented. The graphs are excellent, the mathematics are largely self-contained, and if algorithms are presented they are usually given in numbered steps and an actual computer program shown. This is one drawback of the book - it uses the ancient Simula language for its demonstration code. However, if you are familiar with C, Java, or any of the other mainstream procedural languages, you'll find that Simula looks like very readable pseudocode, so this should not be an obstacle to understanding.
Part III is a section dedicated entirely to probability theory and statistics. Starting with the simple definition of the mean, this handy section not only derives all of the statistics you need in this book, it talks about common mistakes made in applying them.
Part IV is about experimental design and analysis. Using the mathematics developed in part three this section talks about all aspects of designing a proper experiment for the measurement or simulation of a computer system, including common mistakes and the best choice for the size of your experiment.
Part V presents the key issues in simulation modeling. First it discusses simulation terminology, simulation design criteria, and stopping conditions. Random number generation is the subject of three chapters in reference to inputs to your simulation. Finally there is a chapter on the commonly used distributions such as Bernoulli, beta, binomial, etc. that talks specifically about random number generation algorithms for each of the distributions presented. What makes this section so valuable is that although you may have possibly seen the math before, more than likely you don't know the value of each kind of distribution. This section makes that issue clear in terms of modeling computer performance.
Part VI is on queuing models, and is probably the most difficult section in the book. Although it is one of the better written pieces I have read on queueing theory, it is not as easily grasped as previous sections based on reading the textbook alone. There are examples present, and the book does a good job of presenting "the big picture" as to the use of queueing theory in computer performance analysis, but you may need outside material to really grasp how to set up a queueing problem from a mathematical standpoint.
No other book I've found does such a good job of discussing all of the topics covered and clearly tying it into practical issues in measuring and monitoring system performance. I highly recommend it. |
A must have for all performance analysts/ engineer's ..
| Customer Rating: | | A solid book indeed. It has the right mixture of theory and practical cases well dealt with. The techinques must be tried for performance analysis and implemented in real time projects. |
Solid book.
| Customer Rating: | | I'm a performance analyst. I couldn't do my job properly without this book. It really is that simple. |
a classic text..
| Customer Rating: | | This is an absolute gem. I really think that this book must be read by every CS/EE engineer. Performance analysis is always something that comes as an afterthought and engineers think that some some "mathematical" guy called a perf analyst will stop by after the product is completed and analyze the product. This is def wrong. PA should be done at every stage of production. This book has been written assuming a novice reader. Several parts of the book have to re-read to really understand what the author is trying to convey, but trust me you will really appreciate it. I suggest reading the following parts of the book(in order): Part I (whole)
Part II (4, 5, 6, browse {7,8}, 9, 10 ) 10 is cool stuff..impress your peers with this
Part III (whole) read, re-read, re-read till you have digested every line..worth it really!!!!
Part IV (whole) read, re-read, re-read till you have digested every line..worth it really!!!!
Part V : You can skip this if you are not into simulation.
Part VI : Not really that easy to follow. I suggest Gunter's book for this. |
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