Notes and resources related to V8 and thus Node.js performance.
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The data types document explains what data types V8 uses under the hood to store JavaScript data and how it relates to the performance of your code.
The V8 compiler document outlines the V8 compiler pipeline including the Ignition Interpreter and TurboFan optimizing compiler. It explains how information about your code is executed to allow optimizations, how and when deoptimizations occur and how features like the CodeStubAssembler allowed reducing performance bottlenecks found in the older pipeline.
The language features document lists JavaScript language features and provides info with regard to their performance mainly to provide assurance that performance of most features is no longer an issue as it was with the previous compiler pipeline.
The V8 garbage collector document talks about how memory is organized on the V8 heap, how garbage collection is performed and how it was parallelized as much as possible to avoid pausing the main thread more than necessary.
The memory profiling document explains how JavaScript objects are referenced to form a tree of nodes which the garbage collector uses to determine collectable objects. It also outlines numerous techniques to profile memory leaks and allocations.
Inside the inspection document you will find techniques that allow you to profile your Node.js or web app, how to produce flamegraphs and what flags and tools are available to gain an insight into operations of V8 itself.
This document includes information as to how V8 uses caching techniques in order to avoid recompiling scripts during initialization and thus achieve faster startup times.
The runtime functions document gives a quick intro into C++ functions accessible from JavaScript that can be used to provide information of the V8 engine as well as direct it to take a specific action like optimize a function on next call.
It's best to dig into the source to confirm assumptions about V8 performance first hand.
Documented V8 source code for specific versions of Node.js can be found on the v8docs page.
MIT