Server Design and Implementation
<p>I've work in embedded systems and systems programming for hardware interfaces 
to date.  For fun and personal knowledge, recently I've been trying to learn more about server programming after getting my hands wet with Erlang.  I've been going back and thinking about servers from a C++/Java prospective, and now I wonder how scalable systems can be built with technology like C++ or Java.</p>

<p>I've read that due to context-switching and limited memory, a per-client thread handler isn't realistic.  Usually a thread-pool is created and a mix of worker-threads and asynchronous I/O is used to handle requests.  I wonder, first of all, how does one determine the thread pool size?  Does one simply have to measure and find the optimal balance?  Eventually as the system scales then perhaps more than one server is needed to handle requests.  How are requests managed across mulitple servers handling a large client base?</p>

<p>I am just looking for some direction into where I might be able to read more and find answers to my questions.  What area of computer science would I look into for more information in this area?  Are there any design patterns for this area of computing?</p>
