In this article, we will explore the topic of PHP accelerator from different perspectives and approaches. Given its relevance today, it is crucial to understand the implications and ramifications that PHP accelerator has on our society. Throughout this article, we will thoroughly examine the different facets of PHP accelerator, from its origin and history to its impact on the contemporary world. Through expert interviews, data analysis, and concrete examples, we will provide the reader with a complete and detailed view of PHP accelerator, with the goal of generating a deeper and more critical understanding of this important topic.
This article needs to be updated. The reason given is: Zend OPcache was integrated into PHP 5.5. (August 2017) |
A PHP accelerator is a PHP extension designed to improve the performance of software applications written in the PHP programming language.
Most PHP accelerators work by caching the compiled opcode/bytecode of PHP representation of php files to avoid the overhead of parsing and compiling source code on each request (some or even most of which may never be executed). To further improve performance, the cached code is stored in shared memory and directly executed from there, minimizing the amount of slow disk reads and memory copying at runtime.
PHP accelerators substantially increase the speed of PHP applications. Improvements of web page generation throughput by factors of two to seven have been observed.[1][2][3]
The effect on application performance of opcode caching varies widely, depending on factors such as the inherent execution time of the PHP application and the percentage of source code actually executed on a given request, and whether additional optimization steps are performed. While a code optimizer may even slow down overall performance when used in isolation, it can provide an additional performance boost when coupled with a bytecode cache, as the optimization effort is performed just once.