What are the common causes for high CPU usage?

Question

Background:

In my application written in C++, I have created 3 threads:

• AnalysisThread (or Producer) : it reads an input file, parses

Answer 1

1. use asynchronous (file and socket) IO to reduce useless CPU waiting time.
2. use vertical threading model to reduce context switch if possible
3. use lock-less data structure
4. use a profiling tool, such as VTune, to figure out the hot spot and make optimization