Re: [PATCH] Re: Bignum performance (was: Shrinking the C core)

[Ihor Radchenko]

Emanuel Berg <incal@dataswamp.org> writes:

>> And... is has been already done, actually.
>> allocate_vectorlike calls allocate_vector_from_block, which
>> re-uses pre-allocated objects.
>>
>> And looking into the call graph, this exact branch calling
>> allocate_vector_from_block is indeed called for the bignums [...]
>
> Are we talking a list of Emacs C functions executing with the
> corresponding times they have been in execution in a tree data
> structure? :O

That's what GNU perf does - it is a sampling profiler in GNU/Linux.
The Elisp equivalent is profiler.el, but it does not reveal underlying C
functions.

> E.g. where do we find allocate_vectorlike ?

I have listed the commands I used (from terminal):

1. perf record ~/Git/emacs/src/emacs -Q -batch -l /tmp/fib.eln
   <records CPU stats while running emacs>
2. perf report
   <displays the stats>

You need Emacs compiled with debug symbols the get meaningful output.

See more at https://www.brendangregg.com/perf.html

> See if you can do my original test, which was 1-3 Elisp,
> byte-compiled Elisp, and natively compiled Elisp, and the
> Common Lisp execution (on your computer), if you'd like.

As you wish:

$ ~/Git/emacs/src/emacs -Q -batch -l /tmp/fib.el    [5.783 s]
$ ~/Git/emacs/src/emacs -Q -batch -l /tmp/fib.elc   [1.961 s]
$ ~/Git/emacs/src/emacs -Q -batch -l /tmp/fib.eln   [1.901 s]
$ SBCL_HOME=/usr/lib64/sbcl sbcl --load /tmp/fib.cl [0.007 s]

without the patch (on my system)

$ ~/Git/emacs/src/emacs -Q -batch -l /tmp/fib.el    [6.546 s]
$ ~/Git/emacs/src/emacs -Q -batch -l /tmp/fib.elc   [2.498 s]
$ ~/Git/emacs/src/emacs -Q -batch -l /tmp/fib.eln   [2.518 s]


Also, the patch gives improvements for more than just bignums.
I ran elisp-benchmarks
(https://elpa.gnu.org/packages/elisp-benchmarks.html) and got


(before the patch)
  | test               | non-gc avg (s) | gc avg (s) | gcs avg | tot avg (s) | 
tot avg err (s) |
  
|--------------------+----------------+------------+---------+-------------+-----------------|
  | bubble             |           0.70 |       0.06 |       1 |        0.76 |  
          0.07 |
  | bubble-no-cons     |           1.17 |       0.00 |       0 |        1.17 |  
          0.02 |
  | bytecomp           |           1.74 |       0.29 |      13 |        2.03 |  
          0.12 |
  | dhrystone          |           2.30 |       0.00 |       0 |        2.30 |  
          0.07 |
  | eieio              |           1.25 |       0.13 |       7 |        1.38 |  
          0.03 |
  | fibn               |           0.00 |       0.00 |       0 |        0.00 |  
          0.00 |
  | fibn-named-let     |           1.53 |       0.00 |       0 |        1.53 |  
          0.03 |
  | fibn-rec           |           0.00 |       0.00 |       0 |        0.00 |  
          0.00 |
  | fibn-tc            |           0.00 |       0.00 |       0 |        0.00 |  
          0.00 |
  | flet               |           1.48 |       0.00 |       0 |        1.48 |  
          0.04 |
  | inclist            |           1.07 |       0.00 |       0 |        1.07 |  
          0.02 |
  | inclist-type-hints |           1.00 |       0.00 |       0 |        1.00 |  
          0.07 |
  | listlen-tc         |           0.13 |       0.00 |       0 |        0.13 |  
          0.03 |
  | map-closure        |           5.26 |       0.00 |       0 |        5.26 |  
          0.09 |
  | nbody              |           1.61 |       0.17 |       1 |        1.78 |  
          0.06 |
  | pack-unpack        |           0.31 |       0.02 |       1 |        0.33 |  
          0.00 |
  | pack-unpack-old    |           0.50 |       0.05 |       3 |        0.55 |  
          0.02 |
  | pcase              |           1.85 |       0.00 |       0 |        1.85 |  
          0.05 |
  | pidigits           |           4.41 |       0.96 |      17 |        5.37 |  
          0.13 |
  | scroll             |           0.64 |       0.00 |       0 |        0.64 |  
          0.01 |
  | smie               |           1.59 |       0.04 |       2 |        1.63 |  
          0.03 |
  
|--------------------+----------------+------------+---------+-------------+-----------------|
  | total              |          28.54 |       1.72 |      45 |       30.26 |  
          0.26 |


(after the patch)
  | test               | non-gc avg (s) | gc avg (s) | gcs avg | tot avg (s) | 
tot avg err (s) |
  
|--------------------+----------------+------------+---------+-------------+-----------------|
  | bubble             |           0.68 |       0.05 |       1 |        0.73 |  
          0.04 |
  | bubble-no-cons     |           1.00 |       0.00 |       0 |        1.00 |  
          0.04 |
  | bytecomp           |           1.60 |       0.23 |      13 |        1.82 |  
          0.16 |
  | dhrystone          |           2.03 |       0.00 |       0 |        2.03 |  
          0.05 |
  | eieio              |           1.08 |       0.12 |       7 |        1.20 |  
          0.07 |
  | fibn               |           0.00 |       0.00 |       0 |        0.00 |  
          0.00 |
  | fibn-named-let     |           1.44 |       0.00 |       0 |        1.44 |  
          0.12 |
  | fibn-rec           |           0.00 |       0.00 |       0 |        0.00 |  
          0.00 |
  | fibn-tc            |           0.00 |       0.00 |       0 |        0.00 |  
          0.00 |
  | flet               |           1.36 |       0.00 |       0 |        1.36 |  
          0.09 |
  | inclist            |           1.00 |       0.00 |       0 |        1.00 |  
          0.00 |
  | inclist-type-hints |           1.00 |       0.00 |       0 |        1.00 |  
          0.07 |
  | listlen-tc         |           0.11 |       0.00 |       0 |        0.11 |  
          0.02 |
  | map-closure        |           4.91 |       0.00 |       0 |        4.91 |  
          0.12 |
  | nbody              |           1.47 |       0.17 |       1 |        1.64 |  
          0.08 |
  | pack-unpack        |           0.29 |       0.02 |       1 |        0.31 |  
          0.01 |
  | pack-unpack-old    |           0.43 |       0.05 |       3 |        0.48 |  
          0.01 |
  | pcase              |           1.84 |       0.00 |       0 |        1.84 |  
          0.07 |
  | pidigits           |           3.16 |       0.94 |      17 |        4.11 |  
          0.10 |
  | scroll             |           0.58 |       0.00 |       0 |        0.58 |  
          0.00 |
  | smie               |           1.40 |       0.04 |       2 |        1.44 |  
          0.06 |
  
|--------------------+----------------+------------+---------+-------------+-----------------|
  | total              |          25.38 |       1.62 |      45 |       27.00 |  
          0.32 |

About ~10% improvement, with each individual benchmark being faster.

Note how fibn test takes 0.00 seconds. It is limited to fixnum range.

> Actually it is a bit of a bummer to the community since Emacs
> is like THE portal into Lisp. We should have the best Lisp in
> the business, and I don't see why not? Emacs + SBCL + CL +
> Elisp anyone?

This is a balancing act. Elisp is tailored for Emacs as an editor. So,
trade-offs are inevitable. I am skeptical about Elisp overperforming CL.
But it does not mean that we should not try to improve things.

-- 
Ihor Radchenko // yantar92,
Org mode contributor,
Learn more about Org mode at <https://orgmode.org/>.
Support Org development at <https://liberapay.com/org-mode>,
or support my work at <https://liberapay.com/yantar92>