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Comparing AnyEvent/lib/AnyEvent.pm (file contents):
Revision 1.65 by root, Fri Apr 25 06:58:12 2008 UTC vs.
Revision 1.70 by root, Fri Apr 25 07:25:44 2008 UTC

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864 864
865 865
866=head1 BENCHMARK 866=head1 BENCHMARK
867 867
868To give you an idea of the performance and overheads that AnyEvent adds 868To give you an idea of the performance and overheads that AnyEvent adds
869over the backends directly, here is a benchmark of various supported event 869over the event loops directly, here is a benchmark of various supported
870models natively and with anyevent. The benchmark creates a lot of timers 870event models natively and with anyevent. The benchmark creates a lot of
871(with a zero timeout) and io events (watching STDOUT, a pty, to become 871timers (with a zero timeout) and io watchers (watching STDOUT, a pty, to
872writable), lets them fire exactly once and destroys them again. 872become writable, which it is), lets them fire exactly once and destroys
873them again.
873 874
874Explanation of the fields: 875=head2 Explanation of the columns
875 876
876I<watcher> is the number of event watchers created/destroyed. Sicne 877I<watcher> is the number of event watchers created/destroyed. Since
877different event models have vastly different performance each backend was 878different event models feature vastly different performances, each event
878handed a number of watchers so that overall runtime is acceptable and 879loop was given a number of watchers so that overall runtime is acceptable
879similar to all backends (and keep them from crashing). 880and similar between tested event loop (and keep them from crashing): Glib
881would probably take thousands of years if asked to process the same number
882of watchers as EV in this benchmark.
880 883
881I<bytes> is the number of bytes (as measured by resident set size) used by 884I<bytes> is the number of bytes (as measured by the resident set size,
882each watcher. 885RSS) consumed by each watcher. This method of measuring captures both C
886and Perl-based overheads.
883 887
884I<create> is the time, in microseconds, to create a single watcher. 888I<create> is the time, in microseconds (millionths of seconds), that it
889takes to create a single watcher. The callback is a closure shared between
890all watchers, to avoid adding memory overhead. That means closure creation
891and memory usage is not included in the figures.
885 892
886I<invoke> is the time, in microseconds, used to invoke a simple callback 893I<invoke> is the time, in microseconds, used to invoke a simple
887that simply counts down. 894callback. The callback simply counts down a Perl variable and after it was
895invoked "watcher" times, it would C<< ->broadcast >> a condvar once to
896signal the end of this phase.
888 897
889I<destroy> is the time, in microseconds, to destroy a single watcher. 898I<destroy> is the time, in microseconds, that it takes destroy a single
899watcher.
900
901=head2 Results
890 902
891 name watcher bytes create invoke destroy comment 903 name watcher bytes create invoke destroy comment
892 EV/EV 400000 244 0.56 0.46 0.31 EV native interface 904 EV/EV 400000 244 0.56 0.46 0.31 EV native interface
893 EV/Any 100000 610 3.52 0.91 0.75 905 EV/Any 100000 610 3.52 0.91 0.75 EV + AnyEvent watchers
894 CoroEV/Any 100000 610 3.49 0.92 0.75 coroutines + Coro::Signal 906 CoroEV/Any 100000 610 3.49 0.92 0.75 coroutines + Coro::Signal
895 Perl/Any 10000 654 4.64 1.22 0.77 pure perl implementation 907 Perl/Any 16000 654 4.64 1.22 0.77 pure perl implementation
896 Event/Event 10000 523 28.05 21.38 5.22 Event native interface 908 Event/Event 16000 523 28.05 21.38 0.86 Event native interface
897 Event/Any 10000 943 34.43 20.48 1.39 909 Event/Any 16000 943 34.43 20.48 1.39 Event + AnyEvent watchers
898 Glib/Any 16000 1357 96.99 12.55 55.51 quadratic behaviour 910 Glib/Any 16000 1357 96.99 12.55 55.51 quadratic behaviour
899 Tk/Any 2000 1855 27.01 66.61 14.03 SEGV with >> 2000 watchers 911 Tk/Any 2000 1855 27.01 66.61 14.03 SEGV with >> 2000 watchers
912 POE/Event 2000 6644 108.15 768.19 14.33 via POE::Loop::Event
900 POE/Select 2000 6343 94.69 807.65 562.69 POE::Loop::Select 913 POE/Select 2000 6343 94.69 807.65 562.69 via POE::Loop::Select
901 POE/Event 2000 6644 108.15 768.19 14.33 POE::Loop::Event
902 914
903Discussion: The benchmark does I<not> bench scalability of the 915=head2 Discussion
916
917The benchmark does I<not> measure scalability of the event loop very
904backend. For example a select-based backend (such as the pureperl one) can 918well. For example, a select-based event loop (such as the pure perl one)
905never compete with a backend using epoll. In this benchmark, only a single 919can never compete with an event loop that uses epoll when the number of
906filehandle is used. 920file descriptors grows high. In this benchmark, only a single filehandle
921is used (although some of the AnyEvent adaptors dup() its file descriptor
922to worka round bugs).
907 923
908EV is the sole leader regarding speed and memory use, which are both 924C<EV> is the sole leader regarding speed and memory use, which are both
909maximal/minimal. Even when going through AnyEvent, there is only one event 925maximal/minimal, respectively. Even when going through AnyEvent, there is
910loop that uses less memory (the Event module natively), and no faster 926only one event loop that uses less memory (the C<Event> module natively), and
911event model. 927no faster event model, not event C<Event> natively.
912 928
913The pure perl implementation is hit in a few sweet spots (both the 929The pure perl implementation is hit in a few sweet spots (both the
914zero timeout and the use of a single fd hit optimisations in the perl 930zero timeout and the use of a single fd hit optimisations in the perl
915interpreter and the backend itself), but it shows that it adds very little 931interpreter and the backend itself). Nevertheless tis shows that it
916overhead in itself. Like any select-based backend it's performance becomes 932adds very little overhead in itself. Like any select-based backend its
917really bad with lots of file descriptors. 933performance becomes really bad with lots of file descriptors, of course,
934but this was not subjetc of this benchmark.
918 935
919The Event module has a relatively high setup and callback invocation cost, 936The C<Event> module has a relatively high setup and callback invocation cost,
920but overall scores on the third place. 937but overall scores on the third place.
921 938
922Glib has a little higher memory cost, a bit fster callback invocation and 939C<Glib>'s memory usage is quite a bit bit higher, features a faster
923has a similar speed as Event. 940callback invocation and overall lands in the same class as C<Event>.
924 941
925The Tk backend works relatively well, the fact that it crashes with 942The C<Tk> adaptor works relatively well, the fact that it crashes with
926more than 2000 watchers is a big setback, however, as correctness takes 943more than 2000 watchers is a big setback, however, as correctness takes
927precedence over speed. 944precedence over speed. Nevertheless, its performance is surprising, as the
945file descriptor is dup()ed for each watcher. This shows that the dup()
946employed by some adaptors is not a big performance issue (it does incur a
947hidden memory cost inside the kernel, though).
928 948
929POE, regardless of backend (wether it's pure perl select backend or the 949C<POE>, regardless of backend (wether using its pure perl select-based
930Event backend) shows abysmal performance and memory usage: Watchers use 950backend or the Event backend) shows abysmal performance and memory
931almost 30 times as much memory as EV watchers, and 10 times as much memory 951usage: Watchers use almost 30 times as much memory as EV watchers, and 10
932as both Event or EV via AnyEvent. 952times as much memory as both Event or EV via AnyEvent. Watcher invocation
953is almost 700 times slower as with AnyEvent's pure perl implementation.
933 954
934Summary: using EV through AnyEvent is faster than any other event 955Summary: using EV through AnyEvent is faster than any other event
935loop. The overhead AnyEvent adds can be very small, and you should avoid 956loop. The overhead AnyEvent adds can be very small, and you should avoid
936POE like the plague if you want performance or reasonable memory usage. 957POE like the plague if you want performance or reasonable memory usage.
937 958

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