Not only does Jack Shirazi provide an array of useful benchmarks in "Java Performance Tuning", both at the micro and macro level, he provides excellent case studies on how to set up and run benchmarks. Results are given for JDK versions 1.1.6, 1.2, and 1.3 with and without HotSpot. Although it would be nice to get a more up to date test including 1.4 and other run times, the utility of this book goes far beyond what it reports about the compilers and run times available in late 2000.
The high level advice on a tuning methodology (profile and target, of course) is sound, as is the emphasis on perceived performance. Topics everyone should be aware of from caching to threading to streaming are dealt with up front. This might make this book rather hard to follow for readers unfamiliar with these concepts. Further advice on how to measure (try to get close to reality) and to not tune what you don't need to tune are also sound pieces of advice that are often overlooked.
Admirable attention to garbage collection and command-line tuning of the run-times and compilers increased my confidence in the results, and should serve as a model to other benchmarkers. Details considered include everything from cache size and disk framentation to network bottlenecks.
There are too many useful sections to list here. The writing is crisp and clear, the pace fast, and the examples well chosen. Shirazi provides depth on topics ranging from low level constructs such as switch statements, method calls, or upcasts, through intermediate constructs such as threading and object creation and reuse, to higher-level constructs such as the String and Collection classes. In chapter 8, the section "From Raw I/O to Smokin' I/O" alone justifies having this book on your shelf.
This book is about tuning. It is not a book about algorithms or algorithm analysis. You'll need to know that, too. An elegant bridge between tuning and algorithms can be found in Jon Bentley's "Programming Pearls".
All told, "Java Performance Tuning" is the best book on tuning I've ever read. Don't even bother with Wilson et al.'s "Java Platform Performance".
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