Included as part of the XL Fortran optimization suite are options you can use to instruct the compiler to generate code that executes optimally on a given processor or architecture family, and to instruct the compiler on the execution characteristics of your application. The better you can convey those characteristics, the more precisely the compiler can tune and optimize your application. This section assumes that you have already begun optimizing your application using the strategies found in Optimizing XL compiler applications, and discusses the next steps in increasing the performance of your application: