Optimization of C code in a real-time environment

The process of developing software varies from company to company, and often project to project. Often lost in the argument of which process to use is coding for optimization of throughput and resources. This paper explores different ways of optimizing C source code. Topics presented include, but are not limited to, the importance of selecting a compiler and understanding its options at the beginning of a project, analysis of fixed-point versus floating point operations, and ways to conserve stack and memory resources. Comparisons between compilers and processors are not addressed, but data and examples are given to show improvements on multiple platforms