With the advent of the Intel Atom processor and multicore processors, Intel architecture processors are proliferating in a number of new market segments, most notably embedded systems where good performance is essential. In parallel with this trend, Linux is becoming an established operating system option for embedded designs. The two trends combined pose an interesting problem statement: "How to get the most out of my embedded application running on an Intel platform and a general purpose operating system?" During all kinds of application development, there comes a time when a certain level of performance analysis and profiling is required, either to fix an issue or to improve on current performance. Whether it is memory usage and leaks, CPU usage, or optimal cache usage, analysis and profiling would be almost impossible without the right tool set. This article seeks to help developers understand the more common tools available and select the most appropriate tools for their specific performance analysis needs.