How can server performance impact the wait times of PHP scripts, and what steps can be taken to address this issue?

Server performance can impact the wait times of PHP scripts by causing delays in processing requests and executing code. To address this issue, optimizing server resources, caching data, and minimizing database queries can help improve script execution times.

// Example of optimizing server performance by caching data
$cacheKey = 'unique_cache_key';
$data = apc_fetch($cacheKey);

if(!$data){
    // If data is not cached, fetch it from the database
    $data = fetchDataFromDatabase();

    // Cache the data for future use
    apc_store($cacheKey, $data);
}

// Use the cached data for processing
processData($data);