Boost PHP performance, throughput with opcode cache software

PHP is a scripting language most often used to create Web applications. It's easy to learn and produces visible results quickly. However, because PHP is interpreted, PHP code is parsed and translated to opcodes every time it executes. An opcode cache eliminates that rework, making PHP applications faster.

In a short time, PHP has become a popular programming language for Web applications. For the beginner, PHP is simple to install and easy to learn. For the more experienced developer, it (as of V5) offers robust object-oriented features. The community of PHP developers is enormous, and a significant number of open source and commercial libraries and tools extend the capabilities of the core language. PHP is favored by so many because it produces visible results rapidly.

Much like other scripting languages used for Web applications, including Perl, Python, and Ruby, PHP code is parsed, translated to opcodes (primitive instructions -- akin to assembly language -- that the PHP engine executes directly), and executed each and every time an HTTP request summons it. For negligible and low demand, your server executes this complex rendering process seemingly instantly. But as the number of pages served increases, interpretation -- in essence, rework -- can tax the system. In some cases, the "compilation" of your PHP code can far exceed the time required to execute the code. Hence, as demand grows, you can readily become a victim of your own success, as serving more dynamically interpreted, dynamically generated pages requires more and more resources.