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Technical Q&As
The performance of Mac OS X applications and hardware devices can be measured, evaluated, and optimized using Apple's developer tools, technologies, and programming interfaces. Developers can fine-tune their applications for high performance using tools such as the Shark code-profiling application, features such as multiprocessing, and APIs such as the one for the vDSP library.

Performance Resources
A guided introduction and learning path to improving performance in Mac OS X software.   Essential information for developers interested in improving the performance of their applications.  
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Why am I drawing directly to the screen? (HTML)
QA1015: Explains why drawing to a window's backbuffer can affect the upper left corner of the screen instead.
Graphics & Imaging 2004-02-19
Sleep vs. Doze on Mac OS X (HTML)
QA1309: Discusses and demonstrates sleep versus doze detection on Machintosh Mac OS X
Hardware 2003-10-09
Is ColorSync thread safe? (HTML) ()
QA1261: Discusses ColorSync thread-safety issues.
Graphics & Imaging 2003-04-17
Debugging Graphics with QuartzDebug (HTML) ()
QA1236: Explains how to use QuartzDebug to debug graphics issues.
Graphics & Imaging 2003-02-25
Quartz 2D Thread Safety (HTML) ()
QA1238: Explains the thread-safety issues for the Quartz 2D API.
Carbon, Cocoa, Graphics & Imaging 2003-02-25
How do I tell if a particular display is being hardware accelerated by Quartz Extreme? (HTML) ()
QA1218: Describes how to use CGDisplayUsesOpenGLAcceleration to see if a display is accelerated or not.
Carbon, Cocoa, Graphics & Imaging 2002-12-04
Disabling a Processor on a Multiprocessor System (HTML) ()
QA1141: Describes how to disable a processor on a multiprocessor system for testing purposes.
Carbon, Cocoa, Core Foundation, Darwin, Graphics & Imaging, Hardware, Java, Multiprocessing, Music & Audio, Tools, Velocity Engine 2002-05-22
Setting environment variables for user processes (HTML)
QA1067: Tells how to set environment variables for user processes.
Darwin, Tools 2001-10-25
Setting the preferred CMM programatically? (HTML)
QA1086: Uses the NCMConcatProfileSet structure to specify the CMM to be used to make the CMWorldRef with the NCWConcatColorWorld function.
Graphics & Imaging 2001-10-24
QDFlushPortBuffer (HTML) ()
QD65: Describes a possible solution for window update problems under Carbon.
Graphics & Imaging 2000-11-08
The "packages" node in the device tree (HTML)
HW90: Describes the "packages" node in the Open Firmware device tree.
Hardware 2000-09-05
Is the Open Firmware device tree object oriented? (HTML)
HW80: Discusses the object-oriented attributes of the Open Firmware device tree.
Hardware 1999-11-15
Sample code for allocating an amount of dictionary space (HTML)
HW71: Discusses the allocation and the setting of memory for Dictionary space in Open Firmware.
Hardware 1999-10-11
What is the "dump" word and how do I use it? (HTML)
HW68: Describes the function of the Open Firmware word "dump" and how it can be used.
Hardware 1999-10-11
What numeric base is the default for the Open Firmware user interface? (HTML)
HW65: Describes how the default numeric base used by the Open Firmware user interface is hexadecimal.
Hardware 1999-10-11
Determining Open Firmware configuration variables (HTML) ()
HW56: Discusses how to determine the Open Firmware variables on a system.
Hardware 1999-03-29
Getting started with Forth (HTML) ()
HW53: Describes where FCode driver developers can get information about the Forth programming language.
Hardware 1999-03-29
Why did the name of the PCI bridge change? (HTML) ()
HW59: Explains the name change of the PCI bridge to the generic name "pci" in Open Firmware.
Hardware 1999-03-29
OTScheduleDeferredTask When Task Running (HTML) ()
NW52: Describes what happens when you use OTScheduleDefferedTask to schedule a task that is running.
Carbon, Cocoa, Hardware 1997-10-13
Changing the TCP Window Size (HTML)
NW47: Describes how to change the TCP window size in Open Transport.
Carbon, Cocoa 1997-03-14
Using Temporary Memory with OpenPicture (HTML)
Deprecated - QD20: Provides several techniques of causing OpenPicture to allocate temporary memory for a picture handle.
Carbon 1996-02-01
Error -151 and NewGWorld (HTML)
Deprecated - QD18: Explains what the error code -151 means when in NewGWorld.
Carbon 1995-09-15
Problem with PaintRgn on 256-color Screens (HTML)
Deprecated - QD23: PaintRgn with RGBForeColor and transfer mode addOver doesn't return color to original on 256-color-screens.
Carbon 1995-09-15
PCI Type 1 Cycles (HTML)
HW26: Describes the circumstances when the PowerMac generates a Configuration Type 1 command.
Hardware 1995-07-15
ANSI SCSI Standards (HTML)
Deprecated - DV03: Describes past Macintosh systems that did not fully support the ANSI SCSI-1 standard.
Hardware 1995-07-01