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Timestamp:
Sep 9, 2021, 3:56:32 PM (4 years ago)
Author:
Thierry Delisle <tdelisle@…>
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ADT, ast-experimental, enum, forall-pointer-decay, master, pthread-emulation, qualifiedEnum
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Merge branch 'master' of plg.uwaterloo.ca:software/cfa/cfa-cc

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  • doc/theses/andrew_beach_MMath/performance.tex

    rdd1cc02 r5a40e4e  
    22\label{c:performance}
    33
    4 Performance has been of secondary importance for most of this project.
    5 Instead, the focus has been to get the features working. The only performance
    6 requirements is to ensure the tests for correctness run in a reasonable
    7 amount of time.
     4Performance is of secondary importance for most of this project.
     5Instead, the focus was to get the features working. The only performance
     6requirement is to ensure the tests for correctness run in a reasonable
     7amount of time. Hence, a few basic performance tests were performed to
     8check this requirement.
    89
    910\section{Test Set-Up}
    10 Tests will be run in \CFA, C++, Java and Python.
     11Tests were run in \CFA, C++, Java and Python.
    1112In addition there are two sets of tests for \CFA,
    12 one for termination exceptions and once with resumption exceptions.
     13one with termination and one with resumption.
    1314
    1415C++ is the most comparable language because both it and \CFA use the same
    1516framework, libunwind.
    16 In fact, the comparison is almost entirely a quality of implementation
    17 comparison. \CFA's EHM has had significantly less time to be optimized and
     17In fact, the comparison is almost entirely in quality of implementation.
     18Specifically, \CFA's EHM has had significantly less time to be optimized and
    1819does not generate its own assembly. It does have a slight advantage in that
    19 there are some features it does not handle, through utility functions,
    20 but otherwise \Cpp has a significant advantage.
    21 
    22 Java is another very popular language with similar termination semantics.
    23 It is implemented in a very different environment, a virtual machine with
     20\Cpp has to do some extra bookkeeping to support its utility functions,
     21but otherwise \Cpp should have a significant advantage.
     22
     23Java, a popular language with similar termination semantics,
     24is implemented in a very different environment, a virtual machine with
    2425garbage collection.
    2526It also implements the finally clause on try blocks allowing for a direct
    2627feature-to-feature comparison.
    27 As with \Cpp, Java's implementation is more mature, has more optimizations
    28 and more extra features.
    29 
    30 Python was used as a point of comparison because of the \CFA EHM's
    31 current performance goals, which is not be prohibitively slow while the
     28As with \Cpp, Java's implementation is mature, has more optimizations
     29and extra features as compared to \CFA.
     30
     31Python is used as an alternative comparison because of the \CFA EHM's
     32current performance goals, which is to not be prohibitively slow while the
    3233features are designed and examined. Python has similar performance goals for
    3334creating quick scripts and its wide use suggests it has achieved those goals.
    3435
    35 Unfortunately there are no notable modern programming languages with
    36 resumption exceptions. Even the older programming languages with resumptions
    37 seem to be notable only for having resumptions.
    38 So instead resumptions are compared to a less similar but much more familiar
    39 feature, termination exceptions.
    40 
    41 All tests are run inside a main loop which will perform the test
    42 repeatedly. This is to avoids start-up or tear-down time from
     36Unfortunately, there are no notable modern programming languages with
     37resumption exceptions. Even the older programming languages with resumption
     38seem to be notable only for having resumption.
     39Instead, resumption is compared to its simulation in other programming
     40languages: fixup functions that are explicitly passed into a function.
     41
     42All tests are run inside a main loop that repeatedly performs a test.
     43This approach avoids start-up or tear-down time from
    4344affecting the timing results.
    44 Tests ran their main loop a million times.
    45 The Java versions of the test also run this loop an extra 1000 times before
    46 beginning to time the results to ``warm-up" the JVM.
     45The number of times the loop is run is configurable from the command line;
     46the number used in the timing runs is given with the results per test.
     47The Java tests run the main loop 1000 times before
     48beginning the actual test to ``warm-up" the JVM.
     49% All other languages are precompiled or interpreted.
    4750
    4851Timing is done internally, with time measured immediately before and
    49 immediately after the test loop. The difference is calculated and printed.
    50 
     52after the test loop. The difference is calculated and printed.
    5153The loop structure and internal timing means it is impossible to test
    5254unhandled exceptions in \Cpp and Java as that would cause the process to
     
    5557critical.
    5658
    57 The exceptions used in these tests will always be a exception based off of
    58 the base exception. This requirement minimizes performance differences based
    59 on the object model used to repersent the exception.
    60 
    61 All tests were designed to be as minimal as possible while still preventing
    62 exessive optimizations.
     59The exceptions used in these tests are always based off of
     60the base exception for the language.
     61This requirement minimizes performance differences based
     62on the object model used to represent the exception.
     63
     64All tests are designed to be as minimal as possible, while still preventing
     65excessive optimizations.
    6366For example, empty inline assembly blocks are used in \CFA and \Cpp to
    6467prevent excessive optimizations while adding no actual work.
     
    6871% \code{C++}{catch(...)}).
    6972
     73When collecting data, each test is run eleven times. The top three and bottom
     74three results are discarded and the remaining five values are averaged.
     75The test are run with the latest (still pre-release) \CFA compiler,
     76using gcc-10 10.3.0 as a backend.
     77g++-10 10.3.0 is used for \Cpp.
     78Java tests are complied and run with version 11.0.11.
     79Python used version 3.8.10.
     80The machines used to run the tests are:
     81\begin{itemize}[nosep]
     82\item ARM 2280 Kunpeng 920 48-core 2$\times$socket
     83      \lstinline{@} 2.6 GHz running Linux v5.11.0-25
     84\item AMD 6380 Abu Dhabi 16-core 4$\times$socket
     85      \lstinline{@} 2.5 GHz running Linux v5.11.0-25
     86\end{itemize}
     87Representing the two major families of hardware architecture.
     88
    7089\section{Tests}
    7190The following tests were selected to test the performance of different
    7291components of the exception system.
    73 The should provide a guide as to where the EHM's costs can be found.
    74 
    75 \paragraph{Raise and Handle}
    76 The first group of tests involve setting up
    77 So there is three layers to the test. The first is set up and a loop, which
    78 configures the test and then runs it repeatedly to reduce the impact of
    79 start-up and shutdown on the results.
    80 Each iteration of the main loop
     92They should provide a guide as to where the EHM's costs are found.
     93
     94\paragraph{Stack Traversal}
     95This group measures the cost of traversing the stack,
     96(and in termination, unwinding it).
     97Inside the main loop is a call to a recursive function.
     98This function calls itself F times before raising an exception.
     99F is configurable from the command line, but is usually 100.
     100This builds up many stack frames, and any contents they may have,
     101before the raise.
     102The exception is always handled at the base of the stack.
     103For example the Empty test for \CFA resumption looks like:
     104\begin{cfa}
     105void unwind_empty(unsigned int frames) {
     106        if (frames) {
     107                unwind_empty(frames - 1);
     108        } else {
     109                throwResume (empty_exception){&empty_vt};
     110        }
     111}
     112\end{cfa}
     113Other test cases have additional code around the recursive call adding
     114something besides simple stack frames to the stack.
     115Note that both termination and resumption have to traverse over
     116the stack but only termination has to unwind it.
    81117\begin{itemize}[nosep]
    82 \item Empty Function:
     118% \item None:
     119% Reuses the empty test code (see below) except that the number of frames
     120% is set to 0 (this is the only test for which the number of frames is not
     121% 100). This isolates the start-up and shut-down time of a throw.
     122\item Empty:
    83123The repeating function is empty except for the necessary control code.
     124As other traversal tests add to this, it is the baseline for the group
     125as the cost comes from traversing over and unwinding a stack frame
     126that has no other interactions with the exception system.
    84127\item Destructor:
    85128The repeating function creates an object with a destructor before calling
    86129itself.
     130Comparing this to the empty test gives the time to traverse over and
     131unwind a destructor.
    87132\item Finally:
    88133The repeating function calls itself inside a try block with a finally clause
    89134attached.
     135Comparing this to the empty test gives the time to traverse over and
     136unwind a finally clause.
    90137\item Other Handler:
    91138The repeating function calls itself inside a try block with a handler that
    92 will not match the raised exception. (But is of the same kind of handler.)
     139does not match the raised exception, but is of the same kind of handler.
     140This means that the EHM has to check each handler, and continue
     141over all of them until it reaches the base of the stack.
     142Comparing this to the empty test gives the time to traverse over and
     143unwind a handler.
    93144\end{itemize}
    94145
    95146\paragraph{Cross Try Statement}
    96 The next group measures the cost of a try statement when no exceptions are
    97 raised. The test is set-up, then there is a loop to reduce the impact of
    98 start-up and shutdown on the results.
    99 In each iteration, a try statement is executed. Entering and leaving a loop
    100 is all the test wants to do.
     147This group of tests measures the cost for setting up exception handling,
     148if it is
     149not used (because the exceptional case did not occur).
     150Tests repeatedly cross (enter, execute and leave) a try statement but never
     151perform a raise.
    101152\begin{itemize}[nosep]
    102153\item Handler:
    103 The try statement has a handler (of the matching kind).
     154The try statement has a handler (of the appropriate kind).
    104155\item Finally:
    105156The try statement has a finally clause.
     
    107158
    108159\paragraph{Conditional Matching}
    109 This group of tests checks the cost of conditional matching.
     160This group measures the cost of conditional matching.
    110161Only \CFA implements the language level conditional match,
    111 the other languages must mimic with an ``unconditional" match (it still
    112 checks the exception's type) and conditional re-raise if it was not supposed
     162the other languages mimic it with an ``unconditional" match (it still
     163checks the exception's type) and conditional re-raise if it is not supposed
    113164to handle that exception.
     165
     166Here is the pattern shown in \CFA and \Cpp. Java and Python use the same
     167pattern as \Cpp, but with their own syntax.
     168
     169\begin{minipage}{0.45\textwidth}
     170\begin{cfa}
     171try {
     172        ...
     173} catch (exception_t * e ;
     174                should_catch(e)) {
     175        ...
     176}
     177\end{cfa}
     178\end{minipage}
     179\begin{minipage}{0.55\textwidth}
     180\begin{lstlisting}[language=C++]
     181try {
     182        ...
     183} catch (std::exception & e) {
     184        if (!should_catch(e)) throw;
     185        ...
     186}
     187\end{lstlisting}
     188\end{minipage}
    114189\begin{itemize}[nosep]
    115190\item Match All:
     
    118193The condition is always false. (Never matches or always re-raises.)
    119194\end{itemize}
     195
     196\paragraph{Resumption Simulation}
     197A slightly altered version of the Empty Traversal test is used when comparing
     198resumption to fix-up routines.
     199The handler, the actual resumption handler or the fix-up routine,
     200always captures a variable at the base of the loop,
     201and receives a reference to a variable at the raise site, either as a
     202field on the exception or an argument to the fix-up routine.
     203% I don't actually know why that is here but not anywhere else.
    120204
    121205%\section{Cost in Size}
     
    130214
    131215\section{Results}
    132 Each test was run eleven times. The top three and bottom three results were
    133 discarded and the remaining five values are averaged.
    134 
    135 In cases where a feature is not supported by a language the test is skipped
    136 for that language. Similarly, if a test is does not change between resumption
    137 and termination in \CFA, then only one test is written and the result
    138 was put into the termination column.
    139 
    140 % Raw Data:
    141 % run-algol-a.sat
    142 % ---------------
    143 % Raise Empty   &  82687046678 &  291616256 &   3252824847 & 15422937623 & 14736271114 \\
    144 % Raise D'tor   & 219933199603 &  297897792 & 223602799362 &         N/A &         N/A \\
    145 % Raise Finally & 219703078448 &  298391745 &          N/A &         ... & 18923060958 \\
    146 % Raise Other   & 296744104920 & 2854342084 & 112981255103 & 15475924808 & 21293137454 \\
    147 % Cross Handler &      9256648 &   13518430 &       769328 &     3486252 &    31790804 \\
    148 % Cross Finally &       769319 &        N/A &          N/A &     2272831 &    37491962 \\
    149 % Match All     &   3654278402 &   47518560 &   3218907794 &  1296748192 &   624071886 \\
    150 % Match None    &   4788861754 &   58418952 &   9458936430 &  1318065020 &   625200906 \\
    151 %
    152 % run-algol-thr-c
    153 % ---------------
    154 % Raise Empty   &   3757606400 &   36472972 &   3257803337 & 15439375452 & 14717808642 \\
    155 % Raise D'tor   &  64546302019 &  102148375 & 223648121635 &         N/A &         N/A \\
    156 % Raise Finally &  64671359172 &  103285005 &          N/A & 15442729458 & 18927008844 \\
    157 % Raise Other   & 294143497130 & 2630130385 & 112969055576 & 15448220154 & 21279953424 \\
    158 % Cross Handler &      9646462 &   11955668 &       769328 &     3453707 &    31864074 \\
    159 % Cross Finally &       773412 &        N/A &          N/A &     2253825 &    37266476 \\
    160 % Match All     &   3719462155 &   43294042 &   3223004977 &  1286054154 &   623887874 \\
    161 % Match None    &   4971630929 &   55311709 &   9481225467 &  1310251289 &   623752624 \\
    162 \begin{tabular}{|l|c c c c c|}
    163 \hline
    164               & \CFA (Terminate) & \CFA (Resume) & \Cpp & Java & Python \\
    165 \hline
    166 Raise Empty   & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 \\
    167 Raise D'tor   & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & N/A & N/A \\
    168 Raise Finally & 0.0 & 0.0 & N/A & 0.0 & 0.0 \\
    169 Raise Other   & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 \\
    170 Cross Handler & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 \\
    171 Cross Finally & 0.0 & N/A & N/A & 0.0 & 0.0 \\
    172 Match All     & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 \\
    173 Match None    & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 \\
     216% First, introduce the tables.
     217\autoref{t:PerformanceTermination},
     218\autoref{t:PerformanceResumption}
     219and~\autoref{t:PerformanceFixupRoutines}
     220show the test results.
     221In cases where a feature is not supported by a language, the test is skipped
     222for that language and the result is marked N/A.
     223There are also cases where the feature is supported but measuring its
     224cost is impossible. This happened with Java, which uses a JIT that optimize
     225away the tests and it cannot be stopped.\cite{Dice21}
     226These tests are marked N/C.
     227To get results in a consistent range (1 second to 1 minute is ideal,
     228going higher is better than going low) N, the number of iterations of the
     229main loop in each test, is varied between tests. It is also given in the
     230results and has a value in the millions.
     231
     232An anomaly in some results came from \CFA's use of gcc nested functions.
     233These nested functions are used to create closures that can access stack
     234variables in their lexical scope.
     235However, if they do so, then they can cause the benchmark's run-time to
     236increase by an order of magnitude.
     237The simplest solution is to make those values global variables instead
     238of function local variables.
     239% Do we know if editing a global inside nested function is a problem?
     240Tests that had to be modified to avoid this problem have been marked
     241with a ``*'' in the results.
     242
     243% Now come the tables themselves:
     244% You might need a wider window for this.
     245
     246\begin{table}[htb]
     247\centering
     248\caption{Termination Performance Results (sec)}
     249\label{t:PerformanceTermination}
     250\begin{tabular}{|r|*{2}{|r r r r|}}
     251\hline
     252                       & \multicolumn{4}{c||}{AMD}         & \multicolumn{4}{c|}{ARM}  \\
     253\cline{2-9}
     254N\hspace{8pt}          & \multicolumn{1}{c}{\CFA} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{\Cpp} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{Java} & \multicolumn{1}{c||}{Python} &
     255                         \multicolumn{1}{c}{\CFA} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{\Cpp} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{Java} & \multicolumn{1}{c|}{Python} \\
     256\hline
     257Empty Traversal (1M)   & 3.4   & 2.8   & 18.3  & 23.4      & 3.7   & 3.2   & 15.5  & 14.8  \\
     258D'tor Traversal (1M)   & 48.4  & 23.6  & N/A   & N/A       & 64.2  & 29.0  & N/A   & N/A   \\
     259Finally Traversal (1M) & 3.4*  & N/A   & 17.9  & 29.0      & 4.1*  & N/A   & 15.6  & 19.0  \\
     260Other Traversal (1M)   & 3.6*  & 23.2  & 18.2  & 32.7      & 4.0*  & 24.5  & 15.5  & 21.4  \\
     261Cross Handler (1B)     & 6.0   & 0.9   & N/C   & 37.4      & 10.0  & 0.8   & N/C   & 32.2  \\
     262Cross Finally (1B)     & 0.9   & N/A   & N/C   & 44.1      & 0.8   & N/A   & N/C   & 37.3  \\
     263Match All (10M)        & 32.9  & 20.7  & 13.4  & 4.9       & 36.2  & 24.5  & 12.0  & 3.1   \\
     264Match None (10M)       & 32.7  & 50.3  & 11.0  & 5.1       & 36.3  & 71.9  & 12.3  & 4.2   \\
    174265\hline
    175266\end{tabular}
    176 
    177 % run-plg7a-a.sat
    178 % ---------------
    179 % Raise Empty   &  57169011329 &  296612564 &   2788557155 & 17511466039 & 23324548496 \\
    180 % Raise D'tor   & 150599858014 &  318443709 & 149651693682 &         N/A &         N/A \\
    181 % Raise Finally & 148223145000 &  373325807 &          N/A &         ... & 29074552998 \\
    182 % Raise Other   & 189463708732 & 3017109322 &  85819281694 & 17584295487 & 32602686679 \\
    183 % Cross Handler &      8001654 &   13584858 &      1555995 &     6626775 &    41927358 \\
    184 % Cross Finally &      1002473 &        N/A &          N/A &     4554344 &    51114381 \\
    185 % Match All     &   3162460860 &   37315018 &   2649464591 &  1523205769 &   742374509 \\
    186 % Match None    &   4054773797 &   47052659 &   7759229131 &  1555373654 &   744656403 \\
    187 %
    188 % run-plg7a-thr-a
    189 % ---------------
    190 % Raise Empty   &   3604235388 &   29829965 &   2786931833 & 17576506385 & 23352975105 \\
    191 % Raise D'tor   &  46552380948 &  178709605 & 149834207219 &         N/A &         N/A \\
    192 % Raise Finally &  46265157775 &  177906320 &          N/A & 17493045092 & 29170962959 \\
    193 % Raise Other   & 195659245764 & 2376968982 &  86070431924 & 17552979675 & 32501882918 \\
    194 % Cross Handler &    397031776 &   12503552 &      1451225 &     6658628 &    42304965 \\
    195 % Cross Finally &      1136746 &        N/A &          N/A &     4468799 &    46155817 \\
    196 % Match All     &   3189512499 &   39124453 &   2667795989 &  1525889031 &   733785613 \\
    197 % Match None    &   4094675477 &   48749857 &   7850618572 &  1566713577 &   733478963 \\
    198 
    199 % PLG7A (in seconds)
    200 \begin{tabular}{|l|c c c c c|}
    201 \hline
    202               & \CFA (Terminate) & \CFA (Resume) & \Cpp & Java & Python \\
    203 \hline
    204 % Raise Empty   & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 \\
    205 % Raise D'tor   & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & N/A & N/A \\
    206 % Raise Finally & 0.0 & 0.0 & N/A & 0.0 & 0.0 \\
    207 % Raise Other   & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 \\
    208 % Cross Handler & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 \\
    209 % Cross Finally & 0.0 & N/A & N/A & 0.0 & 0.0 \\
    210 % Match All     & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 \\
    211 % Match None    & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 \\
    212 Raise Empty   & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 \\
    213 Raise D'tor   & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & N/A & N/A \\
    214 Raise Finally & 0.0 & 0.0 & N/A & 0.0 & 0.0 \\
    215 Raise Other   & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 \\
    216 Cross Handler & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 \\
    217 Cross Finally & 0.0 & N/A & N/A & 0.0 & 0.0 \\
    218 Match All     & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 \\
    219 Match None    & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 \\
     267\end{table}
     268
     269\begin{table}[htb]
     270\centering
     271\caption{Resumption Performance Results (sec)}
     272\label{t:PerformanceResumption}
     273\begin{tabular}{|r||r||r|}
     274\hline
     275N\hspace{8pt}
     276                        & AMD     & ARM  \\
     277\hline
     278Empty Traversal (10M)   & 0.2     & 0.3  \\
     279D'tor Traversal (10M)   & 1.8     & 1.0  \\
     280Finally Traversal (10M) & 1.7     & 1.0  \\
     281Other Traversal (10M)   & 22.6    & 25.9 \\
     282Cross Handler (1B)      & 8.4     & 11.9 \\
     283Match All (100M)        & 2.3     & 3.2  \\
     284Match None (100M)       & 2.9     & 3.9  \\
    220285\hline
    221286\end{tabular}
    222 
    223 One result that is not directly related to \CFA but is important to keep in
    224 mind is that in exceptions the standard intuitions about which languages
    225 should go faster often do not hold. There are cases where Python out-preforms
    226 \Cpp and Java. The most likely explination is that, since exceptions are
    227 rarely considered to be the common case, the more optimized langages have
    228 optimized at their expence. In addition languages with high level           
    229 repersentations have a much easier time scanning the stack as there is less
    230 to decode.
    231 
    232 This means that while \CFA does not actually keep up with Python in every
    233 case it is no worse than roughly half the speed of \Cpp. This is good
    234 enough for the prototyping purposes of the project.
    235 
    236 One difference not shown is that optimizations in \CFA is very fragile.
    237 The \CFA compiler uses gcc as part of its complation process and the version
    238 of gcc could change the speed of some of the benchmarks by 10 times or more.
    239 Similar changes to g++ for the \Cpp benchmarks had no significant changes.
    240 Because of the connection between gcc and g++; this suggests it is not the
    241 optimizations that are changing but how the optimizer is detecting if the
    242 optimizations can be applied. So the optimizations are always applied in
    243 g++, but only newer versions of gcc can detect that they can be applied in
    244 the more complex \CFA code.
    245 
    246 Resumption exception handling is also incredibly fast. Often an order of
    247 magnitude or two better than the best termination speed.
    248 There is a simple explination for this; traversing a linked list is much   
    249 faster than examining and unwinding the stack. When resumption does not do as
    250 well its when more try statements are used per raise. Updating the interal
    251 linked list is not very expencive but it does add up.
    252 
    253 The relative speed of the Match All and Match None tests (within each
    254 language) can also show the effectiveness conditional matching as compared
    255 to catch and rethrow.
    256 \begin{itemize}[nosep]
    257 \item
    258 Java and Python get similar values in both tests.
    259 Between the interperated code, a higher level repersentation of the call
    260 stack and exception reuse it it is possible the cost for a second
    261 throw can be folded into the first.
    262 % Is this due to optimization?
    263 \item
    264 Both types of \CFA are slighly slower if there is not a match.
    265 For termination this likely comes from unwinding a bit more stack through
    266 libunwind instead of executing the code normally.
    267 For resumption there is extra work in traversing more of the list and running
    268 more checks for a matching exceptions.
    269 % Resumption is a bit high for that but this is my best theory.
    270 \item
    271 Then there is \Cpp, which takes 2--3 times longer to catch and rethrow vs.
    272 just the catch. This is very high, but it does have to repeat the same
    273 process of unwinding the stack and may have to parse the LSDA of the function
    274 with the catch and rethrow twice, once before the catch and once after the
    275 rethrow.
    276 % I spent a long time thinking of what could push it over twice, this is all
    277 % I have to explain it.
    278 \end{itemize}
    279 The difference in relative performance does show that there are savings to
    280 be made by performing the check without catching the exception.
     287\end{table}
     288
     289\begin{table}[htb]
     290\centering
     291\small
     292\caption{Resumption/Fixup Routine Comparison (sec)}
     293\label{t:PerformanceFixupRoutines}
     294\setlength{\tabcolsep}{5pt}
     295\begin{tabular}{|r|*{2}{|r r r r r|}}
     296\hline
     297            & \multicolumn{5}{c||}{AMD}     & \multicolumn{5}{c|}{ARM}  \\
     298\cline{2-11}
     299N\hspace{8pt}       & \multicolumn{1}{c}{Raise} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{\CFA} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{\Cpp} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{Java} & \multicolumn{1}{c||}{Python} &
     300              \multicolumn{1}{c}{Raise} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{\CFA} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{\Cpp} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{Java} & \multicolumn{1}{c|}{Python} \\
     301\hline
     302Resume Empty (10M)  & 1.5 & 1.5 & 14.7 & 2.3 & 176.1  & 1.0 & 1.4 & 8.9 & 1.2 & 119.9 \\
     303\hline
     304\end{tabular}
     305\end{table}
     306
     307% Now discuss the results in the tables.
     308One result not directly related to \CFA but important to keep in mind is that,
     309for exceptions, the standard intuition about which languages should go
     310faster often does not hold.
     311For example, there are a few cases where Python out-performs
     312\CFA, \Cpp and Java.
     313% To be exact, the Match All and Match None cases.
     314The most likely explanation is that, since exceptions
     315are rarely considered to be the common case, the more optimized languages
     316make that case expensive to improve other cases.
     317In addition, languages with high-level representations have a much
     318easier time scanning the stack as there is less to decode.
     319
     320As stated,
     321the performance tests are not attempting to show \CFA has a new competitive
     322way of implementing exception handling.
     323The only performance requirement is to insure the \CFA EHM has reasonable
     324performance for prototyping.
     325Although that may be hard to exactly quantify, I believe it has succeeded
     326in that regard.
     327Details on the different test cases follow.
     328
     329\subsection{Termination \texorpdfstring{(\autoref{t:PerformanceTermination})}{}}
     330
     331\begin{description}
     332\item[Empty Traversal]
     333\CFA is slower than \Cpp, but is still faster than the other languages
     334and closer to \Cpp than other languages.
     335This result is to be expected,
     336as \CFA is closer to \Cpp than the other languages.
     337
     338\item[D'tor Traversal]
     339Running destructors causes a huge slowdown in the two languages that support
     340them. \CFA has a higher proportionate slowdown but it is similar to \Cpp's.
     341Considering the amount of work done in destructors is effectively zero
     342(an assembly comment), the cost
     343must come from the change of context required to run the destructor.
     344
     345\item[Finally Traversal]
     346Performance is similar to Empty Traversal in all languages that support finally
     347clauses. Only Python seems to have a larger than random noise change in
     348its run-time and it is still not large.
     349Despite the similarity between finally clauses and destructors,
     350finally clauses seem to avoid the spike that run-time destructors have.
     351Possibly some optimization removes the cost of changing contexts.
     352
     353\item[Other Traversal]
     354For \Cpp, stopping to check if a handler applies seems to be about as
     355expensive as stopping to run a destructor.
     356This results in a significant jump.
     357
     358Other languages experience a small increase in run-time.
     359The small increase likely comes from running the checks,
     360but they could avoid the spike by not having the same kind of overhead for
     361switching to the check's context.
     362
     363\item[Cross Handler]
     364Here \CFA falls behind \Cpp by a much more significant margin.
     365This is likely due to the fact \CFA has to insert two extra function
     366calls, while \Cpp does not have to do execute any other instructions.
     367Python is much further behind.
     368
     369\item[Cross Finally]
     370\CFA's performance now matches \Cpp's from Cross Handler.
     371If the code from the finally clause is being inlined,
     372which is just an asm comment, than there are no additional instructions
     373to execute again when exiting the try statement normally.
     374
     375\item[Conditional Match]
     376Both of the conditional matching tests can be considered on their own.
     377However for evaluating the value of conditional matching itself, the
     378comparison of the two sets of results is useful.
     379Consider the massive jump in run-time for \Cpp going from match all to match
     380none, which none of the other languages have.
     381Some strange interaction is causing run-time to more than double for doing
     382twice as many raises.
     383Java and Python avoid this problem and have similar run-time for both tests,
     384possibly through resource reuse or their program representation.
     385However \CFA is built like \Cpp and avoids the problem as well, this matches
     386the pattern of the conditional match, which makes the two execution paths
     387very similar.
     388
     389\end{description}
     390
     391\subsection{Resumption \texorpdfstring{(\autoref{t:PerformanceResumption})}{}}
     392
     393Moving on to resumption, there is one general note,
     394resumption is \textit{fast}. The only test where it fell
     395behind termination is Cross Handler.
     396In every other case, the number of iterations had to be increased by a
     397factor of 10 to get the run-time in an appropriate range
     398and in some cases resumption still took less time.
     399
     400% I tried \paragraph and \subparagraph, maybe if I could adjust spacing
     401% between paragraphs those would work.
     402\begin{description}
     403\item[Empty Traversal]
     404See above for the general speed-up notes.
     405This result is not surprising as resumption's linked-list approach
     406means that traversing over stack frames without a resumption handler is
     407$O(1)$.
     408
     409\item[D'tor Traversal]
     410Resumption does have the same spike in run-time that termination has.
     411The run-time is actually very similar to Finally Traversal.
     412As resumption does not unwind the stack, both destructors and finally
     413clauses are run while walking down the stack during the recursive returns.
     414So it follows their performance is similar.
     415
     416\item[Finally Traversal]
     417Same as D'tor Traversal,
     418except termination did not have a spike in run-time on this test case.
     419
     420\item[Other Traversal]
     421Traversing across handlers reduces resumption's advantage as it actually
     422has to stop and check each one.
     423Resumption still came out ahead (adjusting for iterations) but by much less
     424than the other cases.
     425
     426\item[Cross Handler]
     427The only test case where resumption could not keep up with termination,
     428although the difference is not as significant as many other cases.
     429It is simply a matter of where the costs come from,
     430both termination and resumption have some work to set-up or tear-down a
     431handler. It just so happens that resumption's work is slightly slower.
     432
     433\item[Conditional Match]
     434Resumption shows a slight slowdown if the exception is not matched
     435by the first handler, which follows from the fact the second handler now has
     436to be checked. However the difference is not large.
     437
     438\end{description}
     439
     440\subsection{Resumption/Fixup \texorpdfstring{(\autoref{t:PerformanceFixupRoutines})}{}}
     441
     442Finally are the results of the resumption/fixup routine comparison.
     443These results are surprisingly varied. It is possible that creating a closure
     444has more to do with performance than passing the argument through layers of
     445calls.
     446At 100 stack frames, resumption and manual fixup routines have similar
     447performance in \CFA.
     448More experiments could try to tease out the exact trade-offs,
     449but the prototype's only performance goal is to be reasonable.
     450It has already in that range, and \CFA's fixup routine simulation is
     451one of the faster simulations as well.
     452Plus exceptions add features and remove syntactic overhead,
     453so even at similar performance resumptions have advantages
     454over fixup routines.
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