I’ve mentioned articles before theorizing that CPUs are hitting a ceiling in terms of processor power, so we should concetrate more on optimizing our programs.
But after reading this next article, I’ve come to the conclusion that processors are too complex for hand-optimization anymore. Raymond Chen, Optimization is often counter-intuitive
I don’t think it will be possible to keep up with the technology being built into the latest CPUs. It’s just so complex. Just let the compiler handle it.
It’s sad to think that the whole art form of assembly language will practically disappear. It makes books like Michael Abrash’s Black Book more of a history book rather than something you could actually use.
Manual assembly optimization should be effective for a good while yet for modern cell phones and mobile game hardware.